The Venerable Bede: The Greater Litanies
Our Lord and Savior, desiring that we arrive at
the joys of the heavenly kingdom, taught us to ask these joys of him, and
promised that he would give them to us, if we asked for them. 'Ask, ' he said,
'and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be
opened to you.’ We must ponder these words of our Lord, dearly beloved
brothers, earnestly and with our whole heart, because he bears witness that the
kingdom of heaven is not to be given to, found by, and opened to those who are
idle and unoccupied, but to those who ask for it, seek after it and knock [at
its gates]. The gate of the Kingdom must be asked for by praying; it must be
sought by living properly; it must be knocked at by persevering. It is not
sufficient to ask in words only, if we do not also seek diligently how we ought
to be living, so that we may be worthy to obtain that which we plead, as he
bears witness, when he says: 'Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will
enter the kingdom of but he who does the will of my Father who is in is in
heaven, will enter the kingdom of
heaven'. And it is of no avail to have begun good [deeds] if such a one does not
strive to bring the matters which one has begun well to a firm conclusion.
Rather, ‘It were better not to recognize the way of righteousness, than after
acknowledging it to turn back.’
Hence, my brothers, we must ask painstakingly and
pray without respite. ‘Let us fall down before
God, let us weep before the Lord who made us.’ And that we may become worthy to
be hearkened to, let us eagerly see how he wishes us to live, and what he who
made us has us has ordered us to do. Let us seek the Lord and be strengthened; let
us seek his face continually. And that we may deserve to find him and see him, ‘let
us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit,’ for only those
with a chaste body are capable of being raised up to heaven on the day of the [final]
judgement and only those with a pure
heart are capable glory of the divine Majesty.
Let us pierce the ears of our benevolent Maker
with our unwearyingly desire for eternal happiness, and let us not falter in what
we have begun before he opens [the gates] and we become worthy to be snatched
from the prison of this death and to enter the gate of the heavenly fatherland.
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