O master Christ, draw near to take

1 O Master Christ, draw near to take
your undisputed place;
my gifts and faculties remake,
form and re-fashion for your sake
an instrument of peace.

2 O Master Christ, I choose to sow
in place of hatred, love;
where wounds and injuries are now
may healing and forgiveness grow
as gifts from God above.

3 O Master Christ, I choose to plant
hope where there is despair;
a warmth of joy, a shaft of light
where darkness has diminished sight,
where sorrow leaves its scar.

4 O Master Christ, make this my goal
less to receive than give;
to sympathise and to make whole,
to understand and to console
and so, through death, to live.

After a traditional prayer, David Mowbray (born 1938)
© David Mowbray/Jubilate Hymns
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