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Christ the Lord: The source of our ministries and the only one
who can endure what must be endured: something too
easily forgotten by those who minister in His Name...
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One of the phenomena not often spoken of by seminaries or
clergy in their formation for ministry is something called vicarious trauma. This term, borrowed from the counseling field
(and therefore to be scrutinized carefully, as the two vocations are only
tangentially similar) refers to the damage and disruption caused to one by
entering into direct contact with the suffering and struggle of another. One of
its chief characteristics is breakdown of the listener’s own spiritual life,
caused in part by entering into a sort of empathic melt-down with the
traumatized person. It is rather like sticking the fork of one’s emotional self
into the electric socket of another’s pain.
Clergy are always tempted to do this. When not extremely
careful to begin, minister, and end in a very specific kind of prayerfulness,
we are very likely to substitute our own emotional selves for the Holy Spirit’s
work through us.
This, combined with the wear-and-tear of entering into
climates of sorrow, hostility, and sometimes just plain evil, can lead to a
cleric’s sudden realization that one’s ordained ministry has ceased being a
participation in Christ’s redeeming work and has become our own project of
restoring the world to peace—leading to demoralization, exhaustion, and
despair. That, in turn, leads to tremendous vulnerability to evil in our life.
In extreme forms, it can lead to sinful practices, addiction, destruction of
primary Christian relationships, denigration of our sacred vows, despair, and apostasy.
That may sound extreme, but anyone who has been ordained for
any length of time knows far too many such stories—or has had the experience
one’s self—not to know the seriousness of the issues and what is at stake.
With time in Holy Orders, learning to offer to Christ the
burdens of ministry through times of retreat, regular prayer, and various
practices through the day (and in the midst of ministry) stops being a sort of luxury and starts becoming a necessity. That so little attention is
given to this by many of those involved in the ordination process is perhaps
one of the reasons the burnout and resignation rate is so high amongst modern
clergy.
In the aftermath of recent events in our society, especially
the Connecticut school massacre, many clergy may be at the point of serious
spiritual exhaustion—for good and entirely understandable reasons, and also as
a result of unwisely attempting to immerse one’s self in a level of pain and
sorrow only Christ can deal with.
This Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are the winter Ember
Days—a quarterly time when the Church prays for its ministry (both lay and
ordained). This year it seems like a good time to remember that part of our
Embertide devotion is to pray for and support those who deal directly in
confronting the trauma of this world with the Gospel Light. This work is
difficult and requires the intercession of all to be effective. This blog has a
section of prayers and resources related to the Embertides for use by all
involved in active ministry—lay or ordained.
It is also a good time to pray especially for the ordained,
that they may be encouraged to hand over to Christ all that they cannot—and
must not—take upon themselves in ministry; and, that they may learn to
prioritize times of retreat and intentional prayer on the subject of whatever
trauma has “bled through” from others into themselves, learning what is theirs to
deal with (through the disciplines of spiritual direction, confession, &c.),
and what must be cast immediately onto the Cross of Christ, the throne of mercy
and the true seat of our healing.
Only by entering into the mystery of our redemption as
beginners each Embertide (and, by extension, at every turn in our ministries),
will we learn the true power of the Risen Christ found in the ancient Easter
hymn: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon
those in the tombs bestowing life!”
This is the message we are privileged to know and share, and
the message we must never falter to live radiantly. May this Embertide be a
season of renewal in the truth of our ministries, and the authentic source of
their power and health!
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A prayer (especially for clergy) for use at each Embertide as a tool for self-examination and discernment...
Litany of Remembrance
(Commonly called “The
Southwell Litany”)
[Dr. George Ridding,
first Bishop of Southwell, who composed this Litany for use at meetings of his
clergy, was accustomed to introduce it with the following words:
Seeing, brethren, that
we are weak men but entrusted with a great office, and that we cannot but be
liable to hinder the work entrusted to us by our infirmities of body, soul, and
spirit, both those common to all men and those specially attaching to our
office, let us pray God to save us and help us from the several weaknesses
which beset us severally, that he will make us know what faults we have not
known, that he will shew us the harm of what we have not cared to control, that
he will give us strength and wisdom to do more perfectly the work to which our
lives have been consecrated--for no less service than the honor of God and the
edifying of his Church. I will ask you to let me first say the suffrage to each
petition, and then all join in repeating it together; after which a short pause
shall be made.
Let us pray.]
O Lord, open our minds to see ourselves as Thou seest us, or
even as others see us and we see others, and from all unwillingness to know our
infirmities,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From moral weakness of spirit; from timidity; from
hesitation; from fear of men and dread of responsibility, strengthen us with
courage to speak the truth in love and self-control; and alike from the
weakness of hasty violence and weakness of moral cowardice,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From weakness of judgment; from the indecision that can make
no choice; from the irresolution that carries no choice into act; and from
losing opportunities to serve Thee,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From infirmity of purpose; from want of earnest care and
interest; from the sluggishness of indolence, and the slackness of
indifference; and from all spiritual deadness of heart,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From dullness of conscience; from feeble sense of duty; from
thoughtless disregard of consequences to others; from a low idea of the
obligations of our Christian calling; and from all half-heartedness in our
service for Thee,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From weariness in continuing struggles; from despondency in
failure and disappointment; from overburdened sense of unworthiness; from
morbid fancies of imaginary backslidings, raise us to a lively hope and trust
in Thy presence and mercy, in the power of faith and prayer; and from all
exaggerated fears and vexations,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From self-conceit, vanity and boasting; from delight in
supposed success and superiority, raise us to the modesty and humility of true
sense and taste and reality; and from all harms and hindrances of offensive
manners and self-assertion,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From affectation and untruth, conscious or unconscious; from
pretence and acting a part, which is hypocrisy; from impulsive self-adaptation
to the moment in unreality to please persons or make circumstances easy,
strengthen us to manly simplicity; and from all false appearances,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From love of flattery; from over-ready belief in praise;
from dislike of criticism; from the comfort of self-deception in persuading
ourselves that others think better than the truth of us,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From all love of display and sacrifice to popularity; from
thought of ourselves in forgetfulness of Thee in our worship; hold our minds in
spiritual reverence; and in all our words and works from all
self-glorification,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From pride and self-will; from desire to have our own way in
all things; from overweening love of our own ideas and blindness to the value
of others; from resentment against opposition and contempt for the claims of
others; enlarge the generosity of our hearts and enlighten the fairness of our
judgments; and from all selfish arbitrariness of temper,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From all jealousy, whether of equals or superiors; from
grudging others success; from impatience of submission and eagerness for
authority; give us the spirit of brotherhood to share loyally with
fellow-workers in all true proportions; and from all insubordination to law,
order and authority,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From all hasty utterances of impatience; from the retort of
irritation and the taunt of sarcasm; from all infirmity of temper in provoking
or being provoked; from love of unkind gossip, and from all idle words that may
do hurt,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
In all times of temptation to follow pleasure, to leave duty
for amusement, to indulge in distraction and dissipation, in dishonesty and
debt, to degrade our high calling and forget our Christian vows, and in all
times of frailty in our flesh,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
In all times of ignorance and perplexity as to what is right
and best to do, do Thou, O Lord, direct us with wisdom to judge aright, order
our ways and overrule our circumstances as Thou canst in Thy good Providence;
and in our mistakes and misunderstandings,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
In times of doubts and questionings, when our belief is
perplexed by new learning, new thought, when our faith is strained by creeds,
by doctrines, by mysteries beyond our understanding, give us the faithfulness
of learners and the courage of believers in Thee; alike from stubborn rejection
of new revelations, and from hasty assurance that we are wiser than our fathers,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
From strife and partisanship and division among the
brethren, from magnifying our certainties to condemn all differences from all
arrogance in our dealings with all men,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
Give us knowledge of ourselves, our powers and weaknesses,
our spirit, our sympathy, our imagination, our knowledge, our truth; teach us
by the standard of Thy Word, by the judgments of others, by examinations of
ourselves; give us earnest desire to strengthen ourselves continually by study,
by diligence, by prayer and meditation; and from all fancies, delusions, and
prejudices of habit, or temper, or society,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
Give us true knowledge of our brethren in their differences
from us and in their likenesses to us, that we may deal with their real selves,
not measuring their feelings by our own, but patiently considering their varied
lives and thoughts and circumstances; and in all our relations to them, from
false judgments of our own, from misplaced trust and distrust, from misplaced
giving and refusing, from misplaced praise and rebuke,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
Chiefly, O Lord, we pray Thee, give us knowledge of Thee, to
see Thee in all Thy works, always to feel Thy presence near, to hear and know
Thy call. May Thy Spirit be our will, and in all our shortcomings and
infirmities may we have sure faith in Thee,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
Finally, O Lord, we humbly beseech Thee, blot out our past
transgressions, heal the evils of our past negligences and ignorances, make us
amend our past mistakes and misunderstandings; uplift our hearts to new love,
new energy and devotion, that we may be unburdened from the grief and shame of
past faithlessness to go forth in Thy strength to persevere through success and
failure, through good report and evil report, even to the end; and in all time
of our tribulation, in all time of our prosperity,
Save us and help us,
we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.
O Christ, hear us.
Lord, have mercy upon
us.
Christ, have mercy
upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon
us.
Our Father…
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all forever. Amen.
