Love Bade Me Welcome

During the season of Lent, just before communion, we use an old prayer from the Book of Common Prayer 1662: 'We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table, but thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy.' Quintessentially Anglican,  it seems an appropriate prayer to use during Lent, when we meditate on God's great mercy. During this season, we are invited to enter into the depths of God's mercy, to discover anew his love, acceptance, and forgiveness. 

 

This is also a prayer that would have been familiar to the poet and priest, George Herbert (1593-1633). This prayer almost certainly served to inspire this poem, which reminds us that when we gather on Laetare Sunday or 'Refreshment Sunday' in the depths of the wilderness that is Lent, we gather as honoured guests at Christ's table:

 

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

 

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

 

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat.