within and peace without, peace every way assured? O Jesus, when will I stand in Your presence? When will I be with You in Your kingdom, which You have prepared for Your beloved ones from all eternity.
I am left, a poor and banished man, in the land of my enemies where there are daily fears and great calamities.
Comfort my banishment, ease my sorrow; for my whole desire sighs after You. For all is a burden to me, whatever this world offers for consolation. I long to commune with you inwardly, but I cannot attain to it. I desire to cling fast to things heavenly, but temporal things and unmortified passions weigh me down. With the mind I wish to be above all things, but with the flesh I am enforced against my will to be beneath them. Thus, unhappy man that I am, I fight against myself, and have become grievous to myself, for my spirit seeks to be above, and my flesh to be below. Oh, what do I inwardly suffer, while in my mind I dwell on things heavenly, and presently while I pray, a multitude of worldly thoughts surround me!
“Be not far from me, O God; come quickly, O my God, to help me.”  † “Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them”,† and let all the imaginations of the Enemy be confounded. Gather
