Bede: The Great Litanies: Luke 11:9-13

 

Bede: The Great Litanies: Luke 11:9-13

 

We must not be apprehensive that, we seek the gift of love from the Lord with deep devotion, if we say from the bottom of our hearts, Give us today our daily bread, he will permit our hearts to be narrowed by the rigidity of hatred.  Indeed, he implies this the hardness of the stone, when he says, which one of you, if (his son] asks his father for bread, will give him a stone?

 

We must not be afraid that, if we entreat him for strength loc against the temptations of the ancient enemy, saying with our whole heart, 'Lord, increase our faith, ' he will allow to perish from the venom of unbelief. By the word ‘serpent’ the poison of unbelief with which he race is rightfully represented, when it is said,  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent in place of a fish? If we implore the Lord for the hope of heavenly goods through which we may be able to scorn both adversity and prosperity in the present, we must not fear that he will turn away his ears, and allow us, in our despair over what is to come, to look back, that is, to look for the poisonous advantages of the tottering world which we have left behind, The harmful change of a good intention, and the turning back to  fleshly concupiscence, is rightly compared to the venom of a scorpion which it carries behind, that is, in its tail, when it is said, 'Or if he asks for an egg, will hand him a scorpion’?

 

Accordingly, dearly beloved, let us ask those things of the Lord, that he may grant the fresh nourishment of pure charity, sincere faith, and certain hope; and take from us the hardness of hatred, the poison faithlessness, the sting of despair which tends to tends to drag us back to the things that pass. Without any doubt we will receive what we ask for.