Viaticum

With blessing may I rise this day,
Lord God, to wend upon my way,
And wheresoe'er I ride, do Thou defend me!
Lord Christ, make manifest in me
The fulness of Thy charity,
And for Thy Mother's sake vouchsafe to tend me;
Ev'n as that angel o'er her danger
And Thine kept watch, when in the manger,
Ancient God and Infant Child,
Before the ass and ox Thou layest lowly,
(And yet with heavenly, blessed care
Gabriel the Good did tend Thee there,
From his trust by nought beguiled), —
So tend me too, that Thy commandment holy
In me be kept all undefiled!