'Lighten our darkness': experiences of unease and the virtues of BCP daily prayer
The matter has, however, also prompted me to think about how BCP daily prayer provides a significant and potent context for reflecting upon and addressing such matters.
We begin with Morning Prayer. In the Te Deum, we are reminded that, in the words of Elisha, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them":
To thee all Angels cry aloud : the heavens, and all the powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphin : continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty : of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee.
We belong to a "glorious company" beholding and praising the Triune God who is Light and Life everlasting. Whatever the powers of darkness, they cower before this Light which embraces us alongside apostles, prophets, and martyrs.
Particularly as we enter into the dark time of the year, the words of the Benedictus are particularly resonant:
Through the tender mercy of our God : whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death : and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
In the darkness of Autumn and Winter mornings, as we say the Benedictus, we perceive how our heart, mind, and soul are oriented towards the Light that has come into the world, in Whom the dark shadow of death is dispelled.
At Evening Prayer, the Second Collect prays for deliverance from our foes:
and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness ...
Our foes, of course, are not merely flesh and blood. Ghostly foes can unsettle us, grasping at our peace. So we pray "through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour" that we would be "defended" against "fear" of them, knowing "rest and quietness" through the hours of darkness.
Then there is the Third Collect, especially appropriate for those times when a darker presence is suspected:
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
"All perils and danger of this night": visible and invisible, of this world and not of this world of flesh and blood.
At both Morning and Evening Prayer we pray the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The former professes the faith of our Baptism. The Creed is the statement of our baptismal allegiance. When Augustine preached on the Creed to his catechumens, he declared, " before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you with your Creed" (emphasis added): the Creed is armour against our spiritual foes. To profess the Creed at Morning and Evening Prayer is to state that here, in this heart, mind, and soul, the powers of sin, death, and hell have no authority, for we belong to "Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord", who by His saving death and resurrection has redeemed us. To confess the Creed is to declare that we belong the One who has conquered all the powers of darkness.
Then there is the Lord's Prayer. It is prayed at our Baptism, at our Confirmation, when we receive the Holy Communion, and each day at Morning and Evening Prayer. We pray it through all the changing scenes of life. At life's end, it will be prayed at our graveside. It expresses how the Father's faithful love in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit embraces us and holds us all our days. And, as the Catechism states, in the Lord's Prayer we ask our Heavenly Father "that it will please him to save and defend us in all dangers ghostly and bodily".
There is also the Litany:
from the crafts and assaults of the devil ... Good Lord, deliver us.
To regularly offer this petition is surely necessary. Most of the time, those "crafts and assaults" are the temptations we face in daily life and for this, obviously, prayer is certainly required. There are, however, also times when such "crafts and assaults" do not have an everyday character, when the darkness feels present. Occasional though this may be, I think many clergy will acknowledge that it is rare to go through a year in ordained ministry without someone sharing such an experience and seeking guidance. Regular praying of the Litany, therefore, is a preparation for such times.
There is one other collect that we pray as the year turns to the darker months and which can be useful in approaching some of the experiences addressed in in this post. This is the collect for Saint Michael and All Angels. To pray that "thy holy Angels ... may succour and defend us on earth" can have particular potency when certain experiences of darkness are unsettling. It is echoed throughout the year at Morning and Evening Prayer in the Second and Third Collects, as we pray "Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies","Defend us in the same with thy mighty power", "being defended from the fear of our enemies", "defend us from all perils and dangers of this night". The presence and ministry of angels is a means by which God responds to such prayers, succouring us and by means of those "ministering spirits" who come to our aid.
All of this, of course, comes with a crucial warning. While it is right to be rooted in daily Morning and Evening Prayer, this most certainly does not fit us for the specialist ministry of deliverance: this is to be exercised only by ministers duly authorised for this specialist ministry. Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, by contrast, prepares us for passing experiences of darkness, when we ourselves or another person is made uneasy in a manner that calls for prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer ensures that if such situations arise, we are grounded in prayer for God's peace, protection, and light; that we are centred on the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, triumphing over darkness; and that we trust that the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost ever enfolds us.
Comments
Post a Comment