Making known the Mystery of God: Lancelot Andrews

Today we honor the life and witness of Bishop Lancelot Andrews (1555-1626). He was instrumental in the process by which the “King James” translation of the Bible took place (being responsible for translating much of the first five books himself), and was one of the greatest preachers and teachers of his age. His guide to prayer (Preces Privatae) remains one of the essential texts for understanding classical Anglican approaches to prayer, and his 96 Sermons represent, along with Hooker’s Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity, perhaps the summit of early Anglican thought.

It was the gift of a collection of Andrewes’ prayers to me at age sixteen which began my pilgrimage to Anglicanism, and (along with his sermons) has kept me limber and faithful since. He is one of the truly great lights in my life, a father among the saints to me.

 

Here is what one Russian Orthodox author wrote about Andrewes:

 

If Andrewes was indeed a man of  his own time, which he wanted to make aware of the fact that the relationship of man to God is not an idea but an experience lived out in the Church, which itself is in the final analysis nothing other than the place where the Spirit blows and where one participates in the divine life, perhaps even because he was a man of his time and not an atemporal thinker, he joins those whom one calls the Father of the Church. Now they are called that because they knew how to communicate in their own time the sense of the experience of God, showing then to others who would come later what they had to do for their own time. Their paternity is in fact actively generative, and their sons and daughters are called, like Andrewes, to become living images of their Fathers, thus Fathers (and Mothers) in their turn: that is, people who transcend the limits of their own time.

From the conclusion to “Lancelot Andrewes the Preacher,”

 by Nicholas Lossky, Andrew Louth, translator (1991)

 

May we be found to be fathers and mothers of the faith in our own day!

The Collect for the Feast of Blessed Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop

 

Perfect in us, Almighty God, whatever is lacking of thy gifts: of faith, to increase it; of hope, to establish it; of love, to kindle it; that like thy servant Lancelot Andrewes we may live in the life of thy grace and glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

A Prayer of Intercession, Ancient-Reformed-Modern

A Prayer of Intercession, Ancient-Reformed-Modern

Below is an adaptation of a form of intercessory prayer assembled by Bp. Lancelot Andrewes in the 17^th century, using materials from the Eastern Christian tradition.

It may be used on its own, as part of the prayers at the end of daily Morning or Evening Prayer, or at the Eucharist for the Prayers of the People (I have added responses in italics for this latter purpose, making it a litany). Time may be taken in silence between petitions for specific names to be offered to God.

This is a fine example of both concise and considered praying, firmly rooted in the ancient traditions of the catholic faith and the richness of Anglicanism:

In peace let us pray to the Lord:

For the peace that is from above and the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For the peace of the whole world, the stability and growth of the holy churches of God and the union of all people, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For this holy house and those who with faith and piety enter therein, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For our right-reverend bishops, the honorable presbyterate, the diaconate in Christ, and all clergy and people in their ministries, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For this nation, its government, and every city and country and those who dwell therein in faith, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For seasonable weather, plenteous bearing of fruits of the earth and peaceful seasons, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For those who travel, the sick, toil-worn and captives, for their safety, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

For those who have gone to their rest in Christ before us, that they may dwell in the tabernacles of the righteous, let us pray to the Lord:

Lord, have mercy.

Help, save, have mercy, and preserve us, O God, by your grace:

Lord, have mercy.

Commemorating the all holy, immaculate, more than blessed mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, with all saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our lives unto Christ our God:

Unto you, O Lord our God.

For unto you is due all glory, honor, and worship.

Amen.

[A suitable collect concludes the litany if used at the Eucharist]

An Act of Thanksgiving in the War on Entitlement

A sense of entitlement is one of the greatest enemies to the spiritual life. When we cease to give thanks for everything as a gift from God, we cease to be truly Eucharistic. The priestly flow of offering-receiving-thanking is interrupted when we come to think of ourselves as in any way entitled.

It is precisely this entitlement mentality that sits at the heart of many of the world’s injustices. Those who have great riches, power, and privilege are unlikely ever to share these gifts or use them for the Gospel’s sake if they think of them as personal possessions. Those who seek what they do not have are tempted to grasp them by right, rather than affirm them as gifts offered to all people by God.

What is needed is a regular practice of humility and gratitude in prayer, restoring the Eucharistic and priestly dimension to our daily life through intentional acts of regular gratitude to God.

Unfortunately, our era is not particularly adept in this sort of prayer. We are often far more focused on rights and demands than on humility and gratitude. Perhaps this is why contemporary church life seems so mired in ideological battles rather than gripping the imaginations and hopes of many people. Yet, this can easily change when faithful Christians began to pray humbly.

As is so often the case, we are well served here to cast our hearts and eyes over the treasury of Christian experience. Here, we meet forms of prayer that at first seem odd, even uncomfortable, but (when given time to speak to us) reveal a wisdom our own era lacks. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, writing in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, did exactly this.

Andrewes combined passages from the Sacred Scriptures, the writings of the Early and Medieval Church, as well as his own experience as a Christian and a pastor in order to create rich prayers contemplating the deeper mysteries of our faith. He also reflected on his own struggles with pride, covetousness, lust, anger, &c., so that his work tells of a truly lived Christianity…not a “theoretical” faith.

Below is an adaptation of one of Andrewes’ Acts of Thanksgiving. Try praying it deeply. Don’t get “hung up” on the language of being a sinner—so uncomfortable to those schooled in self-esteem—but allow the truth of one’s complete lack of entitlement to speak to your soul. Be freed by accepting all as a gift. Come before God without any sense of deserving anything, so that you may embrace the absolute, the extraordinary gift of your life, your knowledge of God, your salvation in Christ, and all God’s blessings (known and unknown, desired and unwanted, remembered and forgotten).

Make this a regular part of prayer, so that gradually—and by God’s grace alone—all sense of entitlement in your life may be exposed and eradicated. Then, the Gospel will shine through you as it does the glass of a window…giving light to all who encounter you, and illuminating your soul with received joy.

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An Act of Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings

My soul praises the Lord for the good things he has done

   [here, add specific thanksgivings].

Day by day, for these your mercies unto me, which I remember,

   and for others, exceedingly numerous,

   forgotten by reason of their multitude and by reason of my forgetfulness

Those given when I am willing, knowing, asking;

   those given when I am not asking, unaware, unwilling:

I confess and give thanks to you,

I bless and praise you as is due every day,

   and with all my soul and mind I vow:

Glory to you, O Lord, glory to you,

Glory to you and glory to your all-holy Name

For all your divine perfections:

For your inexpressible and unimaginable goodness and mercy

   to sinners and the unworthy,

And to me, of all sinners altogether the most unworthy:

   yes, O Lord, for these and for the rest

Glory and praise and blessing and thanksgiving

   by the voices and concert of voices,

   both of angels and humans and

   of all your saints in heaven and of

   all your creation whether in heaven or on earth,

      or under their feet,

Of me, the unworthy and miserable sinner,

   your lowly creature,

Both now, in this day and hour,

   and every day unto my last breath,

   and unto the end of the world

   and for ever and ever. Amen

-- adapted from “A Particular Thanksgiving” by Bp. Andrewes

A Prayer for Those in Need

This is a modernized version of a prayer compiled by bishop Lancelot Andrewes in the 17th century for use as part of daily intercession. Its simplicity is both arresting and powerful. It may be used after receiving the Mysteries in the Holy Eucharist (a time of special closeness to Christ), as part of one’s Daily Office prayers, or after times of personal intercessory prayer.

Intercession means, in effect, to "stand in the gap" with Christ the Great High Priest, to be part of His work of reconciliation in the ways He gives us. All Christians are called to do this work, both in prayer and in action:

Let us pray to the Lord:

For those wounded in spirit, sick in mind, and in great anxiety;

For those in peril of their life, those that are sick, those receiving medical treatment;

For captives, prisoners, especially those condemned to death;

For the poor, the oppressed, the desolate;

For women with child, in labor, and all young children;

For those away from home, travelers, pilgrims, wayfarers, and the homeless;

For all in any sort of jeopardy, especially those who do not pray, or have none to pray for them.

You, O Lord, are God at once of the living and the dead;

We are they whom the present world yet holds in the flesh;

They are those, unclothed of the body, the world to come has even now received:

Give to the living mercy and grace, to the + dead rest and life perpetual;

Give to the Church truth and peace, and to us sinners penitence and pardon. Amen.