This collect was quoted by Kyle Ritter in the May/June issue of the Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians. It was composed by Ray Glover, the editor of the Hymnal 1982, and one of my predecessors at St. Paul's, Richmond.
O God, whose servant David played upon his harp, composed hymns for his people, and danced before the Ark to the glory of your holy Name: Guide and inspire the musicians everywhere who serve in your temple, that their offerings, like those of David, may be a sacrifice of time and talent worthy of your honor and glory. Al this we ask thorugh Jesus Christ, your only Son, our Lord. Amen.
Labels: church music, Collect, prayer, Ray Glover
I have always loved this prayer by the Rev. Jeremy Davies – at least, I assume he is the author.
The prayer is part of a recording of Evensong from Salisbury Cathedral called King of Glory on the Griffin label from 2003. Davies is the precentor for the service on the recording.
I loved this prayer so much, and I listened to the CD so often that I used to have this prayer memorized. I know that I wrote it down at one point, but I couldn't find it today. So, I pulled out the CD to have a listen.
Thank you God for this beautiful world
and for all the good things around us:for all we have and all we are,
for health and intelligence,
for food and warmth,
for rain and sunshine,
for the beauty of the earth:
the mystery of the mountains, the immensity of the sea
for food, home and family, and friends;
for parents and teachers,
for skills and hobbies,
and things that make us laugh.Forgive us that we take these things so much for granted
and grasp them as our own.
Forgive our selfishness and greed,
and help us to remember, with practical generosity,
those who do not have the advantages we enjoy;for you are the giver of all good things,
and we are made in your likeness,
our God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The rest of the disc is certainly worth hearing too. It's a pristinely sung, beautifully recorded service of Evensong in a great cathedral. This is one of those discs where it all just comes together, in no small part due to the Rev. Jeremy Davies.
Labels: Evensong, Jeremy Davies, prayer
I have been taking my toddler to Evensong.
He's a good sport about it. Mostly.
The very first Evensong we attended together must have been at St. James's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. It was a full house that day, and I had to carry him through the gallery in his infant carseat. It was crowded. People made room. I was the weird dad who was bringing his baby to Evensong. He could only have been three months old, tops.
He had heard me sing before. Heck, I did it the day he was born. But that was the first time he heard me sing in a room full of other people singing.
His whole face lit up.
I could read the joyful relief on his face. It was like, "hey, dad's not crazy! He's just doing this thing that other people do!"
“There's probably not any childcare because, I mean, come on, who brings a baby to Evensong?”
It was a pretty great first outing.
Other services were not so glamorous, or well-attended. And often on these occasions he was more unruly. He was noticeably unimpressed with my singing and would sometimes sabotage my efforts to manage a hymnal.
But that's okay with me, though. It's easy just to sit in the back, close to the door. Sometimes we need to wander out into the narthex or portico during the Nunc dimittis. It's alright. The ushers understand, and sometimes they'll even grab the door for us. (After a short break we have always been able to sneak back in.)
I mean it's not like Sunday morning where someone is going to very helpfully let you know about the nursery (sometimes with transparent motives). It's Evensong. There's probably not any childcare because, I mean, come on, who brings a baby to Evensong?
As it turns out, we've actually been doing this fairly regularly for a couple years at this point.
So I was pretty excited when I asked him if he wanted to go to Evensong this past weekend, and he said the word back to me in response:
"Evensong!" He likes the word. He was proud to say it. He knows what it's about.
I don't know about you, but it's pretty easy to get to Evensong where we live. Here in St. Louis if it's the first or third Sunday of the month we can head over to the Church of St. Michael & St. George. If it's the fourth Sunday of the month we can go the Cathedral downtown. And this has the added excitement of seeing the Gateway Arch through the front windshield now that his carseat faces forward. ("Arch!" I hear from the back, the first time it slides into view.) Other parishes in town have Evensong services on occasion, and we try to take those in too. And, heck, he can even come to my place (but his mom has to sit with him) if it happens to be the second Sunday of the month.
Christ Church Cathedral,
St. Louis, Mo.
And I thought this was all just in good fun until this last time. But something changed for us. It became real.
I should have known something was different when he said "Evensong." He has more and more to say these days, and it was exciting to hear him say this word.
But there we were in the service, and we got to the prayers. And that's when it happened.
This little person next to me started singing the Lord's Prayer. All the words, and with his very best preschool elocution. And a big Amen. And I think even an extra Amen. (Or two!)
Now, mind you, we say the Lord's Prayer at home. Or, more accurately, I say it while he listens. But it's part of the bedtime routine, just like brushing teeth, and you can't really be sure how much of that is sinking in. But we say it at home; we don't sing it. And it never really occurred to me that this little person on the kneeler to my right would remember all these words so clearly in a gothic cathedral downtown, recognize what was going on, and spontaneously join in on a monotone with the rest of the congregation.
“God's very being draws praise from our lips”
There's a phrase I use a lot, and I am quite sure that I stole it from someone, but I can't remember who. And Google is no help here at all. So maybe I made it up, but I don't think so.
And that phrase is this: "God's very being draws praise from our lips".
I really believe that.
After all, what is it that causes people everywhere, from the countryside to the big city, to get up early in the morning, gather again in the afternoon, and even late in the evening in some places to sing praise to God?
If the morning church service still bears the cultural residue of institutionalized/secular religion – a service of "duty" if you will – Evensong has long enjoyed freedom from this – a service of "delight".
At Evensong there is no Baptism or Communion. In most places there's no sermon either. The liturgy and the music are the order of the day. They stand alone, without "ulterior motive". They are their own sacrament, in a way.
This is an incredible place – physical, temporal, spiritual – in which to be. Evensong is a real gift to our harried age.
And so I hope that if you see us or your friendly neighborhood toddler mishandling a prayer book at Evensong you will remember that "Christ doth call / one and all", even the tiny and small.
And if you love Evensong maybe you'll be inspired to invite a young (or any-age) person to go with you (there are often snacks afterward). Or maybe you'll simply consider going yourself if you haven't already made a habit of it.
Obviously I don't know if my son will still find Evensong interesting next week, let alone next year. I sort of hope he does as he grows older, but mostly I hope that he finds something like this that he genuinely loves and that feeds his spirit.
Here is what I do know.
I know that I have really valued these times I have spent in worship with him in the late afternoon. For us, the primary reason is one of logistics: since I am a professional church musician, we don't have the opportunity to share the same pew on Sunday mornings very often.
And I know that, yes, God's very being draws praise from our lips, but it certainly helps if someone will teach us some words.
Maybe some music, too.
Labels: Christ Church Cathedral (St Louis), Evensong, liturgy, prayer, St Michael & St George (St Louis), St Peter's (St Louis), St. James's (Richmond), St. Louis
On Wednesday, November 11, comes this year's Feast of St. Martin of Tours and the Advent of Advent. There is an old tradition of "the Lent of St. Martin" (see a description here) being a sort of intentional pre-Advent season. A waiting before the waiting.
I'm interested in this.
If you look, you can find little vestiges of this pre-Advent show up in places.
Like this collect from last Sunday, Proper 27.
O God, whose blessed Son was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant us, we beseech thee, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves even as he is pure; that, when he shall appear again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, he liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
There's some Advent language in there.
Our English brothers and sisters observe a "Sunday Next before Advent" in their prayer books. It's the same day that we Americans Anglicans call "The Last Sunday after Pentecost"
Last Sunday after Pentecost Tangent: Please note that the title "Christ the King" or any such thing appears nowhere in any Anglican prayer book, but that's another topic for another time.
The American Book of Common Prayer from 1928 comes closest to reclaiming the pre-Advent tradition. But it's found in a revision to that book's Lectionary in 1945 [PDF].
In this lectionary, the three Sundays prior to Advent Sunday are
- Third Sunday before Advent
- Second Sunday before Advent
- Sunday next before Advent
Note also that Proper 27 (above) corresponds with the Third Sunday before Advent.
Also notable in this 1945 lectionary: the Sundays of Advent proper are Sundays "in" Advent, not Sundays "of" Advent as we find in the current 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The difference is subtle, but the older nomenclature suggests a more penitential nature of the season of Advent. The 1979 retains this "Sundays in" terminology only for the season of Lent.
So, here on the blog, let's explore, over the next three weeks, what the Evening Prayer lessons would be like in this pre-Advent season, shall we?
Labels: Advent, BCP, lectionary, Lent, Lent of St. Martin, liturgy, prayer
From the Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) whose feast we celebrate today: his daily devotions for Wednesday, the Fourth Day of the week.
(This post on Sinden.org is the first in a seven-part series to conclude September 26, 2020 )
THE FOURTH DAY
__________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE thought upon Thee, O Lord,
when I was waking,
for Thou hast been my helper.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord,
who madest the two Lights,
Sun and Moon,
greater and lesser,
and the stars
for light, for signs, for seasons,
spring, summer, autumn, winter,
days, weeks, months, years,
to rule over day and night.
__________________________________________________________________
CONFESSION
Behold, Thou art angry,
for we have sinned.
We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses
as filthy rags.
We all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away.
But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father,
we are clay, all Thy handiwork.
Be not wroth very sore,
nor remember iniquity for ever,
behold, see, we beseech Thee,
we are all Thy people.
O Lord, though our iniquities testify
against us,
do Thou it for Thy Name's sake;
for our backslidings are many,
we have sinned against Thee.
Yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us,
and we are called by Thy Name,
leave us, not.
O Hope of Israel,
The Saviour thereof in time of trouble,
why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in
the land,
and as a wayfaring man that turneth
aside to tarry for a night?
why shouldest Thou be as a man
astonished,
as a mighty man that cannot save?
Be merciful to our unrighteousnesses,
and our iniquities remember no more.
Lord, I am carnal,
sold under sin;
there dwelleth in me, that is, in my flesh,
no good thing;
for the good that I would, I do not,
but the evil which I would not, that I do.
I consent unto the law that it is good,
I delight in it after the inner man;
But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind,
and enslaving me to the law of sin.
Wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ,
that where sin abounded,
grace hath much more-abounded.
O Lord, Thy goodness leadeth me to
repentance:
O give me sometime repentance
to recover me from the snare of the devil,
who am taken captive by him, at his will.
Sufficient for me the past time of my life
to have done the will of lusts,
walking in lasciviousness, revelling,
drunkenness,
and in other excess of profligacy.
O Lamb without blemish and without
spot,
who hast redeemed me with Thy
precious Blood,
in that very Blood pity me and save me;
in that Blood, and in that very Name,
besides which is none other under heaven
given among men,
by which we must be saved.
O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee.
Lord, Thou knowest all my desire,
and my groaning is not hid from Thee.
Let not them that trust in Thee,
O Lord God of hosts,
be ashamed for my cause;
let not those that seek Thee be
confounded through me,
O Lord God of Israel.
Take me out of the mire that I sink not;
O let me, be delivered from them
that hate me
and out of the deep waters;
Let not the water flood drown me,
neither let the deep swallow me up,
and let not the pit shut her mouth
upon me.
__________________________________________________________________
PRAYER FOR GRACE
[Defend me from]
[against seven deadly sins]
Pride Amorite.
envy Hittite.
wrath Perizzite.
gluttony Girgashite.
lechery Hivite.
[covetousness]
the cares of life Canaanite.
[sloth]
lukewarm indifference Jebusite.
[Give me]
Humility, pitifulness, patience,
sobriety, purity, contentment, ready zeal.
One thing have I desired of the Lord
which I will require, [12]
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the fair beauty of the Lord,
and to visit His temple.
Two things have I required of Thee,
O Lord,
deny Thou me not before I die;
remove far from me vanity and lies;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
feed me with food convenient for me;
lest I be full and deny Thee
and say, Who is the Lord?
or lest I be poor and steal,
and take the Name of my God in vain.
Let me learn to abound,
let me learn to suffer need,
in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.
For nothing earthly, temporal, mortal,
to long nor to wait.
Grant me a happy life
in piety, gravity, purity,
in all things good and fair,
in cheerfulness, in health, in credit,
in competency, in safety, in gentle estate,
in quiet;
a happy death,
a deathless happiness.
__________________________________________________________________
[12] Vide p. 194, Edition of 1675.
__________________________________________________________________
PROFESSION
I believe
in the Father, benevolent affection;
in the Almighty, saving power;
in the Creator, providence
for guarding, ruling, perfecting the
universe.
In Jesus, salvation,
in Christ, anointing;
in the Only-begotten Son, sonship,
in the Lord, a master's treatment,
in His conception and birth
the cleansing of our unclean conception
and birth;
in His sufferings, which we owed,
that we might not pay;
in His Cross the curse of the law
removed;
in His death the sting of death;
in His, burial eternal destruction in the
tomb;
in His deseent, whither we ought,
that we might not go;
in His resurrection,
as the first-fruits of them that sleep;
in His ascent, to prepare a place for us;
in His sitting, to appear and intercede;
in His return, to take unto Him His own;
in His judgment, to render to each
according to his works.
In the Holy Ghost; power from on high,
transforming unto sanctity
from without and invisibly,
yet inwardly and evidently.
In the Church, a body mystical
of the called out, of the whole world,
unto intercourse in faith and holiness.
In the communion of saints,
members of this body,
a mutual participation in holy things,
for confidence of remission of sins,
for hope of resurrection, of translation,
to life everlasting.
__________________________________________________________________
INTERCESSION
And I have hoped in Thy mercy
from everlasting to everlasting.
How excellent is Thy mercy, O Lord;
If I have hope, it is in Thy mercy,
O let me not be disappointed of my hope.
Moreover we beseech Thee,
remember all, Lord, for good;
have pity upon all; O Sovereign Lord,
be reconciled with us all.
Give peace to the multitudes of Thy
people;
scatter offences;
abolish wars;
stop the uprisings of heresies.
Thy peace and love
vouchsafe to us, O God our Saviour,
the Hope of all the ends of the
earth.
Remember to crown the year
with Thy goodness;
for the eyes of all wait upon Thee,
and Thou givest them their meat in due
season.
Thou openest Thy hand,
and fillest all things living
with plenteousness.
Remember Thy Holy Church;.
from one end of the earth to the other;
and give her peace,
whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy
precious blood;
and establish her
unto the end of the world.
Remember those who bear fruit,
and act nobly,
in Thy holy Churches,
and who remember the poor and needy;
recompense to them
Thy rich and heavenly gifts;
vouchsafe to them,
for things earthly, heavenly,
for corruptible, incorruptible,
for temporal, eternal.
Remember those who are in virginity;
and purity and ascetic life;
also those who live in honourable
marriage,
in Thy reverence and fear.
Remember every Christian soul
in affliction, distress, and trial,
and in need of Thy pity and succour;
also our brethren in captivity, prison,
chains, and bitter bondage;
supplying return to the wandering,
health to the sick,
deliverance to the captives.
Remember religious and faithful kings,
whom Thou hast given to rule
upon the earth;
and especially remember, Lord,
our divinely-guarded king;
strengthen his kingdom,
subdue to him all adversaries,
speak good things to his heart,
for Thy Church, and all Thy
people.
Vouchsafe to him deep and undisturbed
peace,
that in his serenity
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
with all godliness and honesty.
Remember, Lord, all power
and authority,
our brethren in the court,
those who are chief in council
and judgment,
and all by land and sea
waging Thy wars for us.
Moreover, Lord, remember graciously
our holy Fathers,
the honourable Presbytery,
and all the Clergy,
rightly dividing the Word of Truth,
and rightly walking in it.
Remember, Lord, our brethren
around us,
and praying with us in this holy hour,
for their zeal and earnestness-sake.
Remember also those who on fair reasons
are away,
and pity them and us
in the multitude of Thy pity.
Fill our garners with all manner of store;
preserve our marriages in peace and
concord,
nourish our infants,
lead forward our youth,
sustain our aged,
comfort the weak-hearted,
gather together the scattered,
restore the wanderers,
and knit them to Thy Holy Catholic
Apostolic Church.
_Set free the troubled
with unclean spirits,
voyage with the voyagers,
travel with the travellers
stand forth for the widow,
shield the orphan,
rescue the captive,
heal the sick.
Those who are on trial, in mines, in exile,
in galleys,
in whatever affliction, necessity,
and emergence,
remember, O God;
and all who need Thy great mercy;
and those who love us,
and those who hate;
and those who have desired us unworthy
to make mention of them in our prayers;
and all Thy people remember, O Lord,
our God,
and upon all pour out Thy rich pity,
to all performing their requests
for salvation;
and those of whom we have not made
mention,
through ignorance, forgetfulness,
or number of names,
do Thou Thyself remember, O God,
who knowest the stature and appellation
of each,
who knowest every one from his mother's
womb.
For Thou art, O Lord, the Succour of the
succourless,
the Hope of the hopeless,
The Saviour of the tempest-tost,
the Harbour of the voyager,
the Physician of the sick,
do Thou Thyself become all things
to all men.
O Thou who knowest each man and his
petition,
each house, and its need,
deliver, O Lord, this city,
and all the country in which we sojourn,
from plague, famine, earthquake, flood,
fire, sword, hostile invasion,
and civil war.
End the schisms of the Churches,
quench the haughty cries of the nations,
and receive us all into Thy kingdom,
acknowledging us, as sons of light;
and Thy peace and love
vouchsafe to us, O Lord, our God.
Remember O Lord, our God,
all spirits and all flesh
which we have remembered, and which
we have not.
And the close of our life,
Lord, Lord, direct in peace,
Christianly, acceptably, and, should it
please Thee, painlessly,
gathering us together under the feet
of Thine elect,
when Thou wilt and how Thou wilt,
only without shame and sins.
The brightness of the Lord our God be
upon us,
prosper Thou the work of our hands
upon us,
O prosper Thou our handiwork.
Be, Lord,
within me to strengthen me,
without me to guard me,
over me to shelter me,
beneath me to stablish me,
before me to guide me,
after me to forward me,
round about me to secure me.
__________________________________________________________________
PRAISE
Blessed art Thou, Lord, God of Israel,
our Father,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness and the power,
the triumph and the victory,
the praise and the strength,
for Thou rulest over all
in heaven and on earth.
At Thy face every king is troubled,
and every nation.
Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom
and the supremacy over all,
and over all rule.
With Thee is wealth, and glory is from
Thy countenance;
Thou rulest over all, O Lord;
the Ruler of all rule;
and in Thine hand is strength
and power,
and in Thine hand to give to all things
greatness and strength.
And now; Lord, we confess to Thee
and we praise Thy glorious Name. Labels: Lancelot Andrewes, prayer
Lord, bless me this Lent. Lord, let me fast most truly and profitably, by feeding in prayer on this Spriit: reveal me to myself in the light of thy holiness. Suffer me never to think that I have knowledge enough to need no teaching, wisdom enough to need no correction, talents enough to need no grace, goodness enough to need no progress, humility enough to need no repentance, devotion enough to need no quickening, strength sufficient without thy Spirit; lest, standing still, I fall back for evermore. Show me the desires that should be disciplined, and sloths to be slain. show me the omissions to be made up and the habits to be mended. And behind these, weaken, humble and annihilate in me self-will, self-righteousness, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency, self-assertion, vainglory. May my whole effort be to return to thee; O make it serious and sincere persevering and fruitful in result, by the help of thy Holy Spirit and to thy glory, my Lord and my God.
–Eric Milner-White
Commemoration of Octave Day of Holy Innocents
Innocent babes were killed for Christ's sake, yea, the unrighteous king slew the sucklings : now they follow the Lamb wherever He goes, they are without fault before the throne of God, and say continually : Glory be to you, O Lord.
V. Herod was exceeding angry, and slew many children.
R. In Bethlehem Judah, the city of David.
We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Labels: Christmas, Holy Innocents, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, prayer
O Lord, my years grow long,
my time short:
Let me make haste with my repentance
and bow head and heart:
Let me not stay one day from amendment,
lest I stay too long:
Let me cease without delay
to love my own mischief,
and abandon without a backward look
the unfruitful works of darkness.
Lord, grant me new watchfulness
to lay hold upon opportunity of good:
Make me at last put on
the whole armour of light:
Rank me among them who work for their Lord,
loins girded, lamps burning,
till the night shall pass
and the true light shine.
Let me sing the new song,
following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth,
loving wheresoever he loveth,
doing whatsoever he biddeth,
unto the perfect day
and for ever and ever.
Eric Milner-White (1884-1963)
My God, My Glory (1994) p. 16, ed. Joyce Huggett
I'm just going to put this out there: the Bidding Prayer in the Book of Occasional Services leaves a lot to be desired.
The one read at St. John's College, Cambridge, however, is spot on. You can listen to the service this week from the BBC.
Labels: Advent, Book of Occasional Services, prayer, St John's (Cambridge)
Today (St. George's Day) in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for "Royal Perculiars [sic] Chapels Royal, Religious Peculiars, and Westminster Abbey".
What's a Royal Peculiar, you ask?
A Royal Peculiar (or Royal Peculier) is a place of worship that falls directly under the jurisdiction of the British monarch, rather than a diocese.It dates to Anglo-Saxon times when a church could ally itself with the monarch and therefore not be subject to the bishopric of the area. Later it embodied the relationship between the Norman and Plantagenet Kings and the English church.
Every good Anglican should know this.
A Royal Pipedreams peculiarity: It seems to me that the third selection on this week's episode of Pipedreams was not a Fantasia on MADRID, but rather KINGSFOLD (it starts at about 26:00 into the program). This is a little strange since host Michael Barone introduces this selection by referring to the ubiquity of hymn tunes in organist-composed music and saying "I expect some of you might recognize this one". Barone himself either does not recognize it, or is confused about its name.
A royal explanation? It was Spain's King Phillip II who moved the Spanish capital to Madrid. Previously, ruling families held court in Toledo and Zargoza. It is said that Phillip folded these the power of these other two capitals into Madrid, the "doblez del rey" or "king's fold".
MADRID is included in the Presbyterian Hymnal at 150: "Come, Christians, Join to Sing".
Labels: Anglicanism, hymn, prayer
Merton Monday, the second Monday of every month on Sinden.org, features an excerpt from the writing of Thomas Merton:
Praise is cheap today. Everything is praised. Soap, beer, toothpaste, clothing, mouthwash, movie stars, all the latest gadgets which are supposed to make life more comfortable--everything is contantly being "praised." Praise is now so overdone that everybody is sick of it . . .Are there no superlatives left for God? They have all been wasted on foods and quack medicines. There is no word left to express our adoration of Him who alone is Holy, who alone is Lord.
So we go to Him and ask help and to get out of being punished, and to mumble that we need a better job, more money, more of the things that are praised by the advertisements. And we wonder why our prayer is so often dead--gaining its only life, borrowing its only urgency from the fact that we need these things so badly.
Merton, Thomas. Praying the Psalms, Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1956.
Labels: praise, prayer, Psalms, Thomas Merton
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