Praised Be Thou, O My God! How Can I Thank

Sources: Prayers And Meditations

Praised be Thou, O my God! How can I thank Thee for having singled me out

and chosen me above all Thy servants to reveal Thee, at a time when all

had turned away from Thy beauty! I testify, O my God, that if I were given

a thousand lives by Thee, and offered them up all in Thy path, I would

still have failed to repay the least of the gifts which, by Thy grace,

Thou hast bestowed upon me.



I lay asleep on t e bed of self when lo, Thou didst waken me with the

divine accents of Thy voice, and didst unveil to me Thy beauty, and didst

enable me to listen to Thine utterances, and to recognize Thy Self, and to

speak forth Thy praise, and to extol Thy virtues, and to be steadfast in

Thy love. Finally I fell a captive into the hands of the wayward among Thy

servants.



Thou beholdest, therefore, the exile which I suffer in Thy days, and art

aware of my vehement longing to look upon Thy face, and of mine

irrepressible yearnings to enter the court of Thy glory, and of the

stirrings of my heart under the influences of the winds of Thy mercy.



I entreat Thee, O Thou Who art the Ruler of the kingdoms of creation and

the Author of all names, to write down my name with the names of them who,

from eternity, have circled round the Tabernacle of Thy majesty, and clung

to the hem of Thy loving-kindness, and held fast the cord of Thy tender

mercy.



Thou art, in truth, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.