The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 25

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Jesus.

As the litany approaches its close, we pronounce a plea for mercy. We recognize Jesus as our Lamb of God, the One Who gave Himself up as a sacrifice, taking upon Himself the covenant curses we earned by our sins and carrying them to the cross. Jesus is the only One Who can take away the sins of the world, Who has already taken away the sins of the world by His sacrificial death, so we ask Him to spare us, to graciously hear us, and to have mercy on us. And we are certain that He does.

Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.

One again, we ask Jesus to hear us. We know that He does. He always hears our prayers. So why do we ask? Because we must remind ourselves. We must boost our confidence, our trust in our Lord’s presence and care. We must recall that our prayers are important to Jesus; He never ignores us, never tunes us out, never sets us aside. He may say “No” or “Wait” when our prayers do not correspond to His will. But He always, always, always hears us.

Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast said: Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you; grant, we beseech Thee, to us who ask the gift of Thy divine love, that we may ever love Thee with all our hearts, and in all our words and actions, and never cease praising Thee.
Give us, O Lord, a perpetual love of Thy holy Name; for Thou never failest to govern those whom Thou dost solidly establish in Thy love. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

We end this litany with a prayer, again reminding ourselves that Jesus has told us to ask and we shall receive, seek and we shall find, knock and it shall be opened to us. So we pray for Jesus’ divine love, that it may course through our hearts and flow back to God and out to others. We pray that we may be able to praise God always, in all our words and actions, and that we may always love His Holy Name. 

To love God’s Holy Name is to love God, to love Who He is in His deepest character, as much as we can know it.  And to love God for Who He is is to imitate Him, to accept His governance, and to be solidly established in His love. In other words, we give ourselves to God fully, allowing Him to enter our hearts and draw us into His love in deeper and deeper ways.