Yenra : Catholic Prayers : Prayers of St. Francis de Sales

Recommended Book: First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians - Kindle Edition (get Kindle app for phone) (paid link)

O love eternal,
my soul needs and chooses you eternally!
Ah, come Holy Spirit,
and inflame our hearts with your love!
To love -- or to die!
To die -- and to love!
To die to all other love
in order to live in Jesus' love,
so that we may not die eternally.
But that we may live in your eternal love,
O Savior of our souls,
we eternally sing,
"Live, Jesus!
Jesus, I love!
Live, Jesus, whom I love!
Jesus, I love,
Jesus who lives and reigns
forever and ever.
AMEN."

The above prayer is from Treatise on the Love of God, Bk 12 (Containing Certain Counsels with Regard to the Soul's Progress in Holy Love), Ch 13. This chapter, the culmination of the entire Treatise and the last chapter of its last book, is entitled "That Mount Calvary is the True School of Love," and this prayer is at the very end.

The following prayer is also from the Treatise, Bk 10 (On the Commandment to Love God Above All Things), Ch 10 (How We Must Supremely Love God's Goodness More Than Ourselves).

Lord, I am yours,
and I must belong to no one but you.
My soul is yours,
and must live only by you.
My will is yours,
and must love only for you.
I must love you as my first cause,
since I am from you.
I must love you as my end and rest,
since I am for you.
I must love you more than my own being,
since my being subsists by you.
I must love you more than myself,
since I am all yours and all in you.
AMEN.

Alice Claire Mansfield