The Sunday called Quinquagesima, or the Sunday last before Lent.
| 1 |
O Lord, Who by Thy perfect love, sending Thy dear Son from above, to suffer for our sake, hast taught us this great truth to know, test of our doings here below, we charity must make: |
| 2 |
That every action wrought for Thee must by Thy love dictated be, or is it nothing worth, O send Thy Holy Ghost to wake and move our hearts this grace to make our great desire on earth. |
| 3 |
To Thee our praying hands we lift: pour on us that divinest gift of Heavenly charity; make us longsuffering and kind; in bonds of peace our nature bind; be our life hid in Thee. |
| 4 |
Drive from us envy’s murky cloud; ne’er boast we our own acts aloud, or in ourselves rejoice; sit we in silence wise and meek, nor soon provoked rash thoughts to speak, or raise an angry voice. |
| 5 |
In vain we have a name to live; unless this gift Thou deign’st to give, we are but dead to Thee; O grant it through Thine only Son, Thou great Eternal Three in One, that we alive may be! |
Information
| Text | attr. Eliza Humphreys |
| Tune | Magdalen College William Hayes (1706-1777) |
O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth; send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee: grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.