Kindness flows from you, Lord,

   pure and continual.

You had cast us off, as was only just,

   but mercifully you forgave us;

you hated us and you were reconciled to us,

   you cursed us and you blessed us;

you banished us from paradise,

   and you called us back again;

you took from us the fig leaves

 that had been an unsuitable garment,

   and you put on us a cloak of great value;

you opened the prison gates

   and gave the condemned a pardon;

you sprinkled us with clean water

   and washed away the dirt.

Gregory of Nyssa, c 335-395  one of the Cappadocian Fathers

2000 Years of Prayer, slightly modified

For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.