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| The original meaning of "Ember Days" does not refer to the embers of a fire, but there are some interesting connections between the two in the practical life of ministry... |
We are now in the midst of the Winter Embertide. The term "Ember Day" comes from an Anglo-Saxon word, ymbren, which refers to a circuit or revolution...in this case, the circuit of the year. The Winter Embertide is one of the quarterly opportunities the Church gives its members to focus deeply on the nature of ministry, that splendid word which denotes Christian service but also personal self-abnegation--the literal "minus-ing" of ourselves so that Christ may work through us (and not quite so much in spite of us).
Ministry--whether lay or ordained--requires a regular recommitment to authentic and deep communion with God the Holy and Undivided Trinity. This is available through the Sacraments and our regular life of daily prayer and study of the Sacred Scripture, wherein the Holy Spirit infuses us with divine truth and wisdom. We also receive nourishment in a loving humility when we reflect prayerfully on our life in God. This makes the Embertides a vital part of each Anglican's spiritual practice, at least potentially. Each Ember-season is a pause in the flow of life, a focused time of counsel, and an opportunity for the spiritual fire in us to be re-stoked, tended to, and re-directed towards its true purpose: the glorification of God and the sanctification of God's people.
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| Bishop Ridding, First Bishop of Southwell |
In the meantime, here is the Litany as it was written. While a bit dated in language, perhaps readers will find it as beneficial and searching a tool for reflection as I have over the years. Each time I pray it God speaks to me in new ways...something very common to the best written forms of prayer and akin to the probing manner of the Psalms (indeed, I have often thought that Bishop Ridding's keen insight could only happen by many years of praying the Psalms daily). I have often used the Litany of Remembrance as an independent Embertide devotion, or sometimes in place of the Great Litany at the Daily Office during this season, as I did this evening.
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| The baptismal font of St. Thomas, Fifth Ave., NYC. All ministry begins at the font. |
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.
The Ember days continue to be a time when those seeking holy orders write their bishop a letter sharing with the bishop some of their spiritual journey since the last ember day! I like to ask postulants and candidates to reflect on the question, " where have you seen God in your life recently! +Michael
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