Prayers Across the Centuries

Grant us, even us, O Lord, to know You,

and love You and rejoice in You.

And if we cannot do these perfectly in this life,

let us, at least, advance to higher degrees every day,

till we can come to do them in perfection.

Let the knowledge of You increase in us here,

that it may be full hereafter.

Let the love of You grow every day more and more here,

that it may be perfect hereafter;

that our joy may be great in itself and full in You.

We know, O God, that You are a God of truth.

O make good your gracious promises to us,

that our joy may be full.

To Your honor and glory, who with the Father

and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns one God,

world without end.

St. Augustine, 4th-5th Centuries