O Parent of Parents, and Friend of all Friends

O Parent of parents, and Friend of all friends, thou tookest me into thy care, and by degrees led me from all else that at length I might see and settle my love in thee. What had I ever done to please thee? Or what was there in me wherewith to serve thee? . . . O happy begun freedom, the beginning of all my good, and more worth to me at that time than the whole world besides. Had I never since hindered thy will and working in me, what degrees of grace should I now have had . . . My Jesus, forgive me, remember what thou has done for me . . . and for this excess of goodness and love let me no more hinder thy will in me.

Mary Ward (1585-1645)