intimacy with god

²O God, my God: to you, I keep vigil until first light. For you, my soul has thirsted, to you my body, in so many ways. ³By a deserted land, both inaccessible and waterless, so I have appeared in the sanctuary before you, in order to behold your virtue and your glory. ⁴For your mercy is better than life itself. It is you my lips will praise. ⁵So will I bless you in my life, and I will lift up my hands in your name. ⁶Let my soul be filled, as if with marrow and fatness; and my mouth will give praise with exultant lips. ⁷When I have remembered you on my bed in the morning, I will meditate on you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you duplicitous souls!

²²And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, so that they may be one, just as we also are one. ²³I am in them, and you are in me. So may they be perfected as one. And may the world know that you have sent me and that you have loved them, just as you have also loved me.

⁴Abide in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so also are you unable, unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not abide in me, he will be cast away, like a branch, and he will wither, and they will gather him and cast him into the fire, and he burns.

²⁴And this shall be: before they call out, I will perceive; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.

³Cry out to me and I will heed you. And I will announce to you great things, things that are certain, though you do not know them.

³The Lord appeared to me from a distance: “And I have loved you in perpetual charity. Therefore, showing pity, I have drawn you.

²As the deer longs for fountains of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. ³My soul has thirsted for the strong living God. When will I draw close and appear before the face of God?

⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.

¹⁰So shall I know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his Passion, having been fashioned according to his death,

¹All you who thirst, come to the waters. And you who have no money: hurry, buy and eat. Approach, buy wine and milk, without money and without barter. ²Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and expend your labor for what does not satisfy? Listen very closely to me, and eat what is good, and then your soul will be delighted by a full measure. ³Incline your ear and draw near to me. Listen, and your soul will live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, by the faithful mercies of David. ⁴Behold, I have presented him as a witness to the people, as a commander and instructor to the nations. ⁵Behold, you will call to a nation that you did not know. And nations that did not know you will rush to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. For he has glorified you. ⁶Seek the Lord, while he is able to be found. Call upon him, while he is near.

⁹If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just, so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity.

¹Unto the end. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have examined me, and you have known me. ²You have known my sitting down and my rising up again. ³You have understood my thoughts from afar. My path and my fate, you have investigated. ⁴And you have foreseen all my ways. For there is no word in my tongue. ⁵Behold, O Lord, you have known all things: the newest and the very old. You have formed me, and you have placed your hand over me. ⁶Your knowledge has become a wonder to me. It has been reinforced, and I am not able to prevail against it.

¹⁷The Lord your God is the strength in your midst; he will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. In his love, he will be silent. He will exult over you with praise.

⁷But the things which had been to my gain, the same have I considered a loss, for the sake of Christ. ⁸Yet truly, I consider everything to be a loss, because of the preeminent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of everything, considering it all to be like dung, so that I may gain Christ,

³And this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.