What follows is an adaptation of this classic for use at the quarterly Embertides--times of reflection on the state of our ministries. The original, which I have posted elsewhere on this site, may be a bit too 'Victorian' for some. Thus, I have taken the liberty to edit it into more contemporary language while trying to preserve its effectiveness as a tool for self-examination.
A Modern Adaptation of Bishop Ridding’s “Litany of Remembrance”
Commonly called “The Southwell Litany”
Preface:
Seeing, my sisters and brothers, that we are weak 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 people and those especially attaching to our office, let us pray God to save us and help us from the weaknesses which beset us, that God will make us know what faults we have not known, and will show us the harm of what we have not cared to control, giving 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 building up of God’s Church.
Let us pray:
O |
Lord, open our minds to see ourselves as you see us, or as others see us and we see others; and from all unwillingness to know our weaknesses;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
O Lord, strengthen our weaknesses, especially those which hinder our ministry beyond our control; forgive our reserve that dulls proclamation of your word, and give us ease for clarity of address; turn us from self-consciousness, that we may think with freedom of what is in our heart, and of the people we serve; and from all hindrances caused by our own physical weakness;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From moral weakness of spirit, from fear of responsibility, strengthen us with courage to speak the truth as our ministry requires, and to speak in love and self control; and from all moral cowardice;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From weakness of judgment, from the indecision that can make no choice, and the irresolution that carries no choice into action, strengthen our eyes to see and our will to choose the right; and from losing opportunities and perplexing the people we serve needlessly with our own uncertainties;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From dullness of conscience, from a feeble sense of our duty, from thoughtless disregard of consequences to others and a low idea of the obligations of our ministry, and from all half-heartedness in our office;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From weariness in our continuing struggles, from despondency in failure and disappointment, from an over-burdened sense of unworthiness, and from a fixation on our failings, raise us to a lively hope and trust in your presence and mercy; and from all exaggerated fears and frustrations;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From self-conceit, boasting, and delight in supposed success and superiority, raise us to the modesty and humility of honesty, and from all self-delusion;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From affectation and untruth, conscious or unconscious, from pretence and acting a part which is hypocrisy, from impulsively seeking to please persons or make circumstances easy, strengthen us to godly simplicity; and from all false appearances;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From love of flattery, from over-ready belief in praise, from dislike of criticism and resentment of reproof; from the comfort of self-deception in persuading ourselves that others think better than the truth of us;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From all love of display and seeking popularity; from thought of ourselves in our ministrations, from forgetting you in our worship and your people in our teaching; hold our minds in spiritual reverence, that if we sing we may sing unto the Lord, and if we preach we may preach as of a gift that God gives not for our glory but for the building up of the faithful; and in all words and works from all self-glorification;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From pride and self will, from desire to have own way in all things, from a focus on our own ideas and blindness to the value of others; enlarge the generosity of our hearts and enlighten the fairness of our judgment; and from all selfish and arbitrary temper;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From all jealousy, whether of the people we serve, our colleagues, or those in authority over us, from grudging others success, from impatience in godly obedience and eagerness for authority; give us the spirit of mutuality to share loyally with fellow workers; and from all misuse of our orders;
Save us and help us, 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, and from love of unkind gossip;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
In all temptations to abandon principle for expediency, to embrace dishonesty or corruption, or to degrade our high calling and forget our holy vows; and in all times of frailty in our flesh;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
In times of ignorance and perplexity as to what is right and best to do in our ministry, O Lord, direct us with wisdom to judge aright, and to seek and trust your will in our lives; and in our mistakes and misunderstandings;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
In times of doubts and questionings, when our belief is perplexed by new learning, new teaching, 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 you; give us boldness to examine and faith to trust all truth; and in times of change, to grasp new knowledge thoroughly and to combine it loyally and honestly with the old; alike from stubborn rejection of new revelations, and from a hasty assurance that we are wiser than our forbearers;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
From strife and partisanship and division among us, from magnifying our certainties to condemn all differences of opinion, from all arrogance in our dealings with all people as ministers of Christ;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
Give us knowledge of ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses; teach us by the standard of your Word, by the judgments of others, by examinations of ourselves; give us earnest desire to strengthen ourselves continually by study, prayer and meditation; and from all prejudices which narrow our vision of your work and will;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
Give us true knowledge of the people we serve, in their differences from us and their likeness to us, that we may deal with their real selves, measuring their feelings by our own, and patiently considering their varied lives and circumstances; and in all our ministry to them, from false judgments of our own, from misplaced trust and distrust, misplaced praise and rebuke;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
Chiefly, O Lord, we pray you, give us knowledge of you, to see you in all your works, always to feel your presence near, to hear and know your call. May your Spirit by our spirit, our words your words, your will our will, that in our ministry we may be true prophets of yours; be in our midst as the point of contact between ourselves and your people; and throughout our lives may we have faith in you;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
Finally, O Lord, we humbly beseech you, blot out our past negligence and offenses, heal the damage done by our past ignorance, make us amend for our past mistakes; 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 your strength to persevere through success and failure, through good report and evil report, even to the end; and in all time of our tribulation, and in all time of our wealth;
Save us and help us, O Lord.
O, Christ, hear us.
O, Christ, hear us.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Our Father, &c.
T |
he grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
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