“We claim no right to mercy,
we do not deserve it,
We are sinners in everything,
in word and deed and thought
and in all our feelings.
But we are sorry and we pray to God
to be merciful to us sinners!’
If Your all-seeing eye sees
that our hearts are hard
and our resolution to do better is weak:
do You Yourself send us true contrition
and strengthen our sagging wills.
O God be merciful to us sinners!”
“We do not demand speedy deliverance,
we dare not say it will be a day,
a week, even a year;
but yielding wholly to thy will,
we make one prayer
‘God be merciful to us sinners.’
“We dare not murmur before You,
but are now in such pain
that we shrink from a touch,
as we cry like children in this pain,
we call” ‘God be merciful to us sinners!’
AMEN
- Saint Theophan the Recluse
