Hymns of the Eastern Church

tr. Neale, 1862

10. S. Theoctistus of the Studium

Ἰησοῦ γλυκύτατε.

Jesu, Name all names above,
Jesu, best and dearest,
Jesu, Fount of perfect love,
Holiest, tenderest, nearest;
Jesu, source of grace completest,
Jesu purest, Jesu sweetest,
Jesu, Well of power Divine,
Make me, keep me, seal me Thine!

Jesu, open me the gate
That of old he enter’d,
Who, in that most lost estate,
Wholly on Thee ventur’d;
Thou, Whose Wounds are ever pleading,
And Thy Passion interceding,
From my misery let me rise
To a Home in Paradise!

Thou didst call the Prodigal:
Thou didst pardon Mary:
Thou Whose words can never fall,
Love can never vary:
Lord, amidst my lost condition
Give—for Thou can’st give—contrition!
Thou can’st pardon all mine ill
If Thou wilt: O say, “I will!”

Woe, that I have turned aside
After fleshly pleasure!
Woe, that I have never tried
For the Heavenly Treasure!
Treasure, safe in Homes supernal;
Incorruptible, eternal!
Treasure no less price hath won
Than the Passion of The Son!

Jesu, crown’d with Thorns for me!
Scourged for my transgression!
Witnessing, through agony,
That Thy good confession;
Jesu, clad in purple raiment,
For my evils making payment;
Let not all Thy woe and pain,
Let not Calvary, be in vain!

When I reach Death’s bitter sea,
And its waves roll higher,
Help the more forsaking me
As the storm draws nigher:
Jesu, leave me not to languish,
Helpless, hopeless, full of anguish!
Tell me,—Verily I say,
Thou shall be with Me to-day!