Hosea

Come back to me with all your heart.
Don't let fear keep us apart.
Trees do bend, 'though straight and tall;
so must we to others' call.

Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.

The wilderness will lead you
to your heart where I will speak.
Integrity and justice,
With tenderness, you shall know.

Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.

You shall sleep secure with peace;
faithfulness will be your joy.

Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.

Hosea 6:1, 3:3, 2:16,21; Joel 2:12
Gregory Norbet

God of Mercy and Compassion (II)

God of mercy and compassion,
Lord of life and blinding light.
Truth whom creatures would refashion,
Force on us the gift of sight.

Truth insistent and demanding,
Love resented and ignored,
Life beyond all understanding,
Give us peace and pardon, Lord.


God most holy and forgiving,
Penetrate our pride and sloth;
On a people partly living,
Force the gift of life and growth.

Truth insistent and demanding,
Love resented and ignored,
Life beyond all understanding,
Give us peace and pardon, Lord.


Lord, who out of love consented
To the worst that we could do;
Lord, abandoned and tormented,
Let us love and suffer too.

Truth insistent and demanding,
Love resented and ignored,
Life beyond all understanding,
Give us peace and pardon, Lord.

Michael Hodgetts

God of Mercy and Compassion (I)

God of mercy and compassion,
Look with pity upon me,
Father let me call Thee Father,
‘Tis thy child returns to Thee.

Jesus Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.


By my sins I have deserved
Death and endless misery,
Hell with all its pains and torments,
And for all eternity.

Jesus Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.


By my sins I have abandoned
Right and claim to heaven above,
Where the Saints rejoice forever
In a boundless sea of love.

Jesus Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.


See our Saviour, bleeding, dying,
On the cross of Calvary;
To that cross my sins have nailed Him,
Yet He bleeds and dies for me.

Jesus Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.

Edmund Vaughan

Come as You Are

Come as you are, that's how I want you.
Come as you are, feel quite at home.
Close to my heart, loved and forgiven;
come as you are, why stand alone?

No need to fear, love sets no limits.
No need to fear, love never ends.
Don't run away shamed and disheartened.
Rest in my love, trust me again.

I came to call sinners, not just the virtuous.
I came to bring peace, not to condemn.
Each time you fail to live by my promise,
why do you think I'd love you the less?

Come as you are, that's how I love you.
Come as you are, trust me again.
Nothing can change the love that I bear you.
All will be well, just come as you are.

Deirdre Browne