'This ancient form of supplication': The Lesser Litany at Matins and Evensong

This week's extract from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796) considers the Kyries - the Lesser Litany - before the second Lord's Prayer at Matins and Evensong. Shepherd described these Kyries as "a most pathetic address to each person of the Trinity" ('pathetic' was defined by Samuel Johnson's dictionary as "affecting the passions; passionate; moving") and praised the reformers for "their wisdom in retaining this ancient form of supplication, but at the same time translating it into English".

He roots their use in the daily office in a canon of the second council of Vaison (539AD) in southern Gaul, adopting the practice from Byzantine usage in the East and in the churches of Italy (which then followed Byzantine practice):

The second council of Vaison observes, that in the East, and the provinces of Italy, an useful and agreeable custom prevailed of frequently saying this supplication, "Lord have mercy upon us," with great devotion and contrition: and enacts that in the Gallic church, it shall be introduced into the Morning and Evening Prayer, and the office of the holy communion. In our daily service these versicles are placed before the repetition of the Lord's Prayer, to which they form a proper introduction. For no prayer requires greater preparation than that divine form which proceeded from the lips of our Lord. Sometimes it is preceded by confession and absolution, but more generally by this shorter Litany, which instructs us to acknowledge our unworthiness, bewail our misery, and supplicate the mercy of God. After this we may with humble confidence look up to our heavenly Father, and pray to him for farther blessings.

As with his commentary on 'Let us pray' and 'The Lord be with you: and with thy spirit', Shepherd here unveils the beauty and deep significance of oft-overlooked parts of the Cranmerian daily office. The Lesser Litany draws us at Matins and Evensong into prayer with the great Churches of the East (perhaps particularly evident at Choral Matins and Choral Evensong) and also prepares us to utter the dominical words of the Lord's Prayer, thus reminding us of the particular sanctity of that prayer.

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