Have mercy, Lord .... I cannot straighten, what I have bent ...

Have mercy, O most gracious Father.

Have mercy, and hear my prayer. 

Woe unto me for I am truly a whitewashed tomb, 

lovely on the outside 

and yet full of death and uncleanness on the inside.

You have purified me 

and yet by my own desires and sinfulness, 

I fill myself with selfish and self-serving ways in which I live, 

and love myself above all else.

I cannot purify, what I have made impure.

I cannot straighten, what I have bent.

I cannot make clean, what I have made filthy.

I cannot save, what I have lost.

I cannot make holy, what I have made unholy.

I cannot make alive, that which I have killed.

For the sake of Jesus Christ, 

whom I crucified by the agents of my sins, 

and You made alive by Your power of the resurrection, 

have mercy upon me and forgive me. 

Have mercy, O Lord. 

Have mercy, O Christ.

Amen. 

- pmwl