Today is the final day in the Lenten Embertide, one of the quarterly periods of focus on prayer for ministry in the Church Calendar. The Embertides can slip away unnoticed quite easily in our busy lives, but for those who take the Liturgical Year as the pattern for life (and not a charming leftover from another era or a curious hobby), they form an important part of how we see our work in the Vineyard not as our own, but God's work through us.
Because it is inevitable that we will sully that work through our own sin, it is essential we take time out from the day-to-day of ministry (lay or ordained) to reflect on the character of our discipleship. There are a variety of tools available for this work, but I still value Bishop Ridding's "Litany of Remembrance" (sometimes called the Southwell Litany because he was the first bishop of that diocese and wrote it there for the use of his parish clergy when they would gather at the Embertides). It is probing, wise, and not excessively negative or anxious. To me, it is a classic example of Anglican realism and ascetic practicality...even if it does have some delightful passages of Victorian purple prose here and there.
I pray that you, wherever you are, will take time to pray and consider the shape of your offering to Christ as a minister (whether ordained or not) of the Gospel. Our common baptism is our entrance into this work, but it is not the last word. What the current "word" spoken by our ministry is requires some consideration; otherwise, what we will be sharing is not the Gospel but our own message...and the world is already far too full of that sort of thing.
A Litany of Remembrance
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.
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