Love (III) - George Herbert
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quicked-ey'd Love,
Observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew near to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd any thing.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, You should be he.
I the unkinde, engrateful? ah my deare,
I can not look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I hav marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
The mixture of the simple and the profound in Herbert's words never cease to amaze me and you only have to glance through the hymnal to see his enduring effect upon the English speaking Church.
Herbert had a simple familiarity with the divine that came from being around the divine day in and day out as perhaps only a parish priest running his round of daily offices and pastoral visits and smalls snippets of grace can find. But it is there for all of us - day in and day out - God, longing for our presence at the table, our simple words, our all.
I am making a rare addition to a post - a phrase from the collect of the day which bypassed my consciousness this morning and only entered into my brain at a noontime mass.
Give us grace, we pray, joyfully to perform the tasks you give us to do, knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for your sake;
This should reassure and encourage us!
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