The Severe Mercy in “Sanctify Us, O Lord”

An ancient prayer from Liturgy of St. James for love, holiness, grace.

A strange mercy of the Christian tradition is that it refuses to flatter us. It gives us words when our own words have become too polished to be honest.

So the invitation is simple: do not merely admire the sentence. Borrow it. Pray it until it starts telling the truth in your own voice.