To know, love, and follow Jesus more clearly

As I scrolled through my Twitter feed yesterday, I was delighted to find this tweet from the Clerk of Oxford (@ClerkofOxford) of a manuscript image of Saint Richard of Chichester:

Here's a link to that manuscript, an interesting collection of Anglo-Norman verse saints' lives: http://t.co/O0IRrqAB3y
— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) June 16, 2014

Saint Richard served as Bishop of Chichester until his death of 3 April 1253. He his best known today because of the prayer attributed to him on his deathbed (though the rhyming triplet at concluding it is not found in the original text written by Saint Richard's confessor:

Thanks be to Thee,
my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits Thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
 
O most merciful Redeemer,
friend and brother,
may I know Thee more clearly,
love Thee more dearly,
follow Thee more nearly.

To know, to love, and to follow: these are the marks of the disciple and, as such,whether it comes directly from Saint Richard or can be merely attributed to him, it is a beautiful prayer. Many people today know of the prayer because it was made popular in 1971 in the musical Godspell and the song "Day by Day."