Give me the grace, Good Lord
~To set the world at naught.
~To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men's mouths.
~To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.
~Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.
~Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labor to love Him.
~To know my own vileness and wretchedness. To humble myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.
~Gladly to bear my purgatory here. To be joyful in tribulations. To walk the narrow way that leads to life.
~To have the last thing in remembrance. To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand. To make death no stranger to me. To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell. To pray for pardon before the judge comes.
~To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me. For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.
~To buy the time again that I have lost. To abstain from vain conversations. To shun foolish mirth and gladness. To cut off unnecessary recreations.
~Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.
~To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.
~These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap.
Amen
As he wrote this while in the Tower of London, held there because he would not swear first, the Oath of Succession and then the Oath of Supremacy, Thomas More was obviously preparing himself for martyrdom. He had already lost his freedom, his influence, his power, his friends, and many of the comforts of his family and he was praying to be reconciled to those losses:
~To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.
More had loved to be with family and friends, to share hospitality and conversation--but now he was in the Tower, solitary and without those pleasures (except for the visits of his daughter, Margaret). He must have longed for those days of conviviality!
~To buy the time again that I have lost. To abstain from vain conversations. To shun foolish mirth and gladness. To cut off unnecessary recreations.
More's sense of humor and delight in fun is well known. Now he's in the Tower, he is obviously not enjoying "unnecessary recreations" but he is clearly weaning himself away from even common pleasures.
~To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.
As More endured his imprisonment, the constant pressure to take the oaths; even as he encountered the injustice of his trial on July 1, 1535--he still showed great compassion and almost mercy to those who were harassing and prosecuting him. He even hoped that they somehow would meet "merrily in heaven" after all these earthly conflicts.
~These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap.
More is putting everything in the perspective of eternity--weighing in a balance the renunciation of all worldly pleasures and even innocent human happiness, and treasuring the opportunity to endure his purgatory while on earth and follow the narrow path, even as it means losing so many of the good things he'd enjoyed while free.
Amen.
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