laudable Practice

That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy holy Word, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That the Litany draws to a close with this petition, that it is our final petition, reflects Our Lord's words: "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants". Morning Prayer has been said. Prayer and praise has been offered. The holy Scriptures have been read. The Litany has been said, with its petitions for all sorts and conditions. And after all this, we remain "unprofitable servants", who must seek forgiveness for our sins and grace for amendment of life. That it may please thee to give us true repentance ... True repentance. Passing regret is not true repentance. In the words of Jeremy Taylor: "Repentance implies a deep sorrow, as the beginni...

Praying the Litany on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, week by week, is a practical, enriching discipline which can gather up all of life in prayer before the Triune God. It has a blessed prosaic quality, week by week ensuring that we pray for those whom we might forget or, in some cases, prefer not to pray for.  In Holy Week, while the text (thankfully) does not change, particular petitions of the Litany take on an added emphasis, compelling our attention, drawing us more deeply into the mysteries of this week and unfolding their meaning. O God the Father of heaven ... O God the Son, Redeemer of the world ... O God the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have mercy upon us miserable sinners. We begin, as we do each time the Litany is prayed, by invoking the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. From the outset, then, the Litany brings us to recognise the truth that the savings events of Holy Week are the work of the Holy Trinity, for us and for our salvation. He...

Last week the news headlines here in the UK were profoundly grim. A child serial killer was found guilty and sentenced to whole-life imprisonment. The appalling suffering of the families whose little children had been cruelly murdered was reported in terms which left most of us deeply moved. The sense of incomprehension in the face of evil could also be detected in the reporting. Many of us will, quite naturally, have found praying for such dark, tragic circumstances very difficult. I certainly found it futile to rely on my own resources, my own thoughts, my own words. What was I to pray for? What could be said?  On Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, however, the Litany was said. And it was in the Litany, once again , that I found the words that gave meaning and shape to my attempts to pray for a dark, tragic situation. From all evil and mischief ... from the craft and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation, Good Lord, deliver us. Evil. Devil. Wrath. Dam...

To the people of Vienna (Mamercus being their Bishop, about 450 years after Christ) there befell many things, the suddenness and strangeness whereof so amazed the hearts of all men, that the city they began to forsake as a place which heaven did threaten with imminent ruin. It beseemed not the person of so grave a prelate to be either utterly without counsel as the rest were, or in a common perplexity to shew himself alone secure. Wherefore as many as remained he earnestly exhorteth to prevent portended calamities, using those virtuous and holy means wherewith others in like case have prevailed with God. To which purpose he perfecteth the Rogations or Litanies before in use, and addeth unto them that which the present necessity required. Their good success moved Sidonius Bishop of Arverna to use the same so corrected Rogations, at such time as he and his people were after afflicted with famine, and besieged with potent adversaries. For till the empty name of the empire came to be settl...