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You set aside Your glorious garments to bend low in order to serve us, to wash our feet to prepare us for a meal. A banquet of love which will make us new and for which nothing but the action of God can prepare us.

But we must not resist, must not protest out of a shallow humility that forgets that Your way is perfect, even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if we recognize our unworthiness, like Peter. Unless we are washed by You, we can have no part in You. "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well." (Jn 13:9)

We can only be prepared for the Banquet by allowing You to wash us, by yielding to Your loving condescension. It is by our willingness to surrender to Your love that we are made worthy of it.

Give us the grace of yielding to Your love, Lord, so that we may be readied and taken up by You into the fullness of life with You that You long to share with us. May we allow You to "chastise us with glory" (St. Teresa of Avila) and cleanse us with tenderness, accepting all as gift of Your merciful kindness.

Give us the humility to allow ourselves to be fully loved by You.