To Live By Love

Lyrics:

To live by love is closely to enfold,
Thee, Word of God, the uncreated Word,
And with Thee in my heart of hearts to hold
The Spirit by whose flame my soul is stirred.
Thus loving Thee the Father, too, is mine
Since my frail heart has drawn Him from above.
The Trinity is prisoner divine of my poor love.

To live by love is to abandon fear,
The guilty burden, the remorseful days,
No shadows of mistrust or sin appear.
All is effaced in love’s consuming rays.
O Love, thou glowing furnace, sacred flame!
I fix my dwelling in thy fires above,
And there the mercies of the Lord proclaim,
And live by love.

To live by love is to hold fast within
This earthen vessel goods divinely fair.
Thou seest, God, my waywardness and sin
And findest little of the angel there.
But if I trembling fall at ev’ry hour
Thou wilt embrace me, lifting me above,
If I but call, thou givest me new pow’r
To live by love.