O Jesus, how do You make us love You? How do You turn pain into hope, and death into life? How do You take everything from us, then grant us everything and more?
We fast, and eat nothing but Your presence; we hunger, and desire nothing but Your word. All things fall away around us, like the old leaves of autumn, and Your face alone remains full of life. In our march toward Pascha, we almost touch the light as it breaks forth from the darkness, and we feel Your resurrection seeping into our bones before the dawn arrives.
O Jesus, You alone are our bread, and Your word alone satisfies our hunger. We wish to eat nothing but Your presence, and to live by nothing but You. In prayer we become dust mingled with heaven, kneaded anew by Your grace, so that we are refashioned in Your image, as You willed us from the beginning.
Here we come to You — fasting, silent, hoping, loving… We cannot endure life without You, and we want nothing but You, O Jesus.