A Song of Our True Nature (Canticle S)

Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, * 

    our trespasses and our humiliations.
Christ also revealed his blessed power, *
    his blessed wisdom and love.
He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly 

when we are in greatest need; *
    he raises us in spirit
    and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.
God is the ground and the substance, 

the very essence of nature; *
    God is the true father and mother of natures.
We are all bound to God by nature, *
    and we are all bound to God by grace.
And this grace is for all the world, *
    because it is our precious mother, Christ.
For this fair nature was prepared by Christ
for the honor and nobility of all, *
    and for the joy and bliss of salvation.

--Dame Julian of Norwich (1343-ca 1416), English mystic, visionary, and anchorite

A Song of Jonah (Canticle I)

I called to you, O God, out of my distress, and you answered me;
     out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
     and the flood surrounded me;
          all your waves and billows passed over me.
Then I said, "I am driven away from your sight;
     how shall I ever look again upon your holy temple?"
The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me;
     weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots
          of the mountains.
I went down to the land beneath the earth,
     yet you brought up my life from the depths, O God. 
As my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, O God,
     and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
With the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you;
     what I have vowed I will pay, for deliverance belongs to the Lord!

-- Jonah 2:2-7, 9, from Enriching Our Worship 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying; Burial of a Child