Saturday, September 26, 2015

an intercessory prayer of Lancelot Andrewes

Today we remember Lancelot Andrewes, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth I and one of the scholars on the committee that put together the King James translation of the Bible.  He was especially known for his life of prayer.
INTERCESSION And I have hoped in Thy mercy from everlasting to everlasting. How excellent is Thy mercy, O Lord; If I have hope, it is in Thy mercy, O let me not be disappointed of my hope. Moreover we beseech Thee, remember all, Lord, for good; have pity upon all; O Sovereign Lord, be reconciled with us all.
Give peace to the multitudes of Thy people; scatter offences; abolish wars; stop the uprisings of heresies. Thy peace and love vouchsafe to us, O God our Saviour, the Hope of all the ends of the earth.
Remember to crown the year with Thy goodness; for the eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thy hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness.
Remember Thy Holy Church; from one end of the earth to the other; and give her peace, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood; and establish her unto the end of the world.
Remember those who bear fruit, and act nobly, in Thy holy Churches, and who remember the poor and needy; recompense to them Thy rich and heavenly gifts; vouchsafe to them, for things earthly, heavenly, for corruptible, incorruptible, for temporal, eternal. Remember those who are in virginity; and purity and ascetic life; also those who live in honourable marriage, in Thy reverence and fear. Remember every Christian soul in affliction, distress, and trial, and in need of Thy pity and succour;
also our brethren in captivity, prison, chains, and bitter bondage; supplying return to the wandering, health to the sick, deliverance to the captives. Remember religious and faithful kings, whom Thou hast given to rule upon the earth; and especially remember, Lord, our divinely guarded king; strengthen his kingdom, subdue to him all adversaries, speak good things to his heart, for Thy Church, and all Thy people. Vouchsafe to him deep and undisturbed peace, that in his serenity we may lead a quiet and peaceable life with all godliness and honesty.
Remember, Lord, all power and authority, our brethren in the court, those who are chief in council and judgment, and all by land and sea waging Thy wars for us. Moreover, Lord, remember graciously our holy Fathers, the honourable Presbytery, and all the Clergy, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, and rightly walking in it. Remember, Lord, our brethren around us, and praying with us in this holy hour, for their zeal and earnestness-sake. Remember also those who on fair reasons are away, and pity them and us in the multitude of Thy pity.
Fill our garners with all manner of store; preserve our marriages in peace and concord, nourish our infants, lead forward our youth, sustain our aged, comfort the weak hearted, gather together the scattered, restore the wanderers, and knit them to Thy Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. Set free the troubled with unclean spirits, voyage with the voyagers, travel with the travellers stand forth for the widow, shield the orphan, rescue the captive, heal the sick.
Those who are on trial, in mines, in exile, and upon all pour out Thy rich pity, in whatever affliction, necessity, and emergence, remember, O God; and all who need Thy great mercy; and those who love us, and those who hate; and those who have desired us unworthy to make mention of them in our prayers; and all Thy people remember, O Lord, our God, and upon all pour out Thy rich pity, to all performing their requests for salvation; and those of whom we have not made mention, through ignorance, forgetfulness, or number of names, do Thou Thyself remember, O God, who knowest the stature and appellation of each, who knowest every one from his mother's womb.
For Thou art, O Lord, the Succour of the succourless, the Hope of the hopeless, The Saviour of the tempest-tost, the Harbour of the voyager, the Physician of the sick, do Thou Thyself become all things to all men. O Thou who knowest each man and his petition, each house, and its need, deliver, O Lord, this city, and all the country in which we sojourn, from plague, famine, earthquake, flood, fire, sword, hostile invasion, and civil war. End the schisms of the Churches, quench the haughty cries of the nations, and receive us all into Thy kingdom, acknowledging us, as sons of light; and Thy peace and love vouchsafe to us, O Lord, our God.
Remember O Lord, our God, all spirits and all flesh which we have remembered, and which we have not. And the close of our life, Lord, Lord, direct in peace, Christianly, acceptably, and, should it please Thee, painlessly, gathering us together under the feet of Thine elect, when Thou wilt and how Thou wilt, only without shame and sins. The brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper Thou our handiwork.
Be, Lord, within me to strengthen me, without me to guard me, over me to shelter me, beneath me to stablish me, before me to guide me, after me to forward me, round about me to secure me.
(located first in book pp. 78-84; text searched for, located, copied and corrected from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/andrewes/devotions1.txt)

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