LYRICS

1. Jesus loves me! This I know for the  bible tells me so. 
Little ones to him belong; they are weak but He is strong.

Refrain:
Yes, Jesus loves me!   Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!  The bible tells me so.

2. Jesus loved me, He who died; Heavens gates to open wide.
He will wash away my sin; Let his little child come in.

Repeat Refrain twice

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Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
(17th Century)

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Hymn Background:

When Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153), a sickly youth in Dijon, France, was unable to fulfill military service, he became a monk.  So successful was he that he eventually founded the famous monastery in nearby Clairvaux; in time almost 170 other monasteries sprang from Bernard’s leadership. He became the most powerful preacher of his era, and is remembered as a pious man, a deeply contemplative mystic, the “honey-tongued doctor”.  Martin Luther called Bernard “the best monk that ever lived, whom I admire beyond all the rest put together.”

He wasn’t a perfect man, as seen by some in his support for the Second Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim control.  But for 800 years, his words have been read and sung, and his good work has continued.

Here are some excerpts from his writings and sermons:

• How do we know that Christ has really overcome death? Precisely in that he, who did not deserve it, underwent it . . . But what kind of justice is this, you may say, that the innocent should die for the guilty? It is not justice, but mercy.
• I was made a sinner by deriving my being from Adam; I am made righteous be being washed in the blood of Christ.
• You will never have real mercy for the failings of another until you know and realize that you have the same failings in your soul.
• Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your kindness in uniting us to the church you so dearly love, not merely that we may be endowed with the gift of faith, but that, like brides, we may be one with you . . . beholding with unveiled faces that glory which is yours in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
• You wish me to tell you why and how God should be loved.  My answer is that God Himself is the reason He is to be loved.
  
  Several well known hymns are attributed to St. Bernard:  “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee,” and “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”.

Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee
LYRICS:

1. Jesus, the very thought of thee, with sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see, and in thy presence rest.

2. No voice can sing, no heart can frame, nor can the mind recall
A sweeter sound than thy blest name, O Savior of us all.

4. Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.

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God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending

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Who is My Mother, Who is My Brother?