Let us live for Christ who while dying restored our life. Let us die to ourselves and live to Christ. Let us not be proud, or undisciplined, but humble, kindly and courteous, so that Christ may reign in our hearts.
Let us be Christ’s and not our own, for we are not our own, for we were bought at a great price, when the Lord was given for a slave, a King for a servant and God for humankind.
Let us fight against our faults, that we may be crowned elsewhere, disdain passing things, and seek what is to come, seek life without end, and so exchange blessing for misery, joy for sorrows, heaven for earth.
May Christ our Lord deign to grant us this who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(Source: St Columban, Sermon IX. St Columban’ publication © The Prayer Trust.)