Christ on the Cross by Eugène Delacroix via Wikimedia Commons
Lord Jesus Christ,
There is so much to drag us back:
empty achievements,
meaningless pleasures,
unworthy concerns.
There is so much to scare us away:
a pride too cowardly to let itself be helped,
cowardice that recoils from sharing in your suffering,
anxiety of confessing sin, and shunning the purity of holiness
But you are still stronger–
so draw us, ever more strongly, to yourself.
We call you our Savior and Redeemer,
because you came to earth to free us
from the chains by which we were bound
or with which we had bound ourselves
This was your work, which you have completed
and will continue to complete until the end of time,
for just as you yourself have said it, so will you do it:
lifted up from the earth, you will draw all to yourself.
Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 – 1855, Danish philosopher and theologian
from Practice in Christianity (1848) freely modified
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Now is the time for judgment on this world;
now the prince of this world will be driven out.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
prayer & verse 
