Daily Reading for April 21 • Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1109
Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you:
you are gentle with us like a mother with her children.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
Often you weep over our sins and our pride:
tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgment.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds:
in sickness you nurse us and with pure milk you feed us.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
Jesus by your dying we are born to new life:
by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness:
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
Your warmth gives life to the dead;
your touch makes sinners righteous.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness:
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.
In your love and tenderness, remake us.
A prayer of Anselm of Canterbury, quoted in 2000 Years of Prayer, compiled by Michael Counsell. Copyright © 1999. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com