Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

TOMORROW is Trinity Sunday.

I BELIEVE, O my God, that Thou art one, and that there is no other God besides thee; Thou art that one infinite and independent Being, that one only true God, whom all men, and all angels, are to adore: all glory be to Thee.

O Lord God, help me to love and to praise Thee with godlike affections, and a suitable devotion.

I believe, O my God, that in the unity of Thy Godhead there is a Trinity of persons. I believe, in Thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name I was baptized, to whose service I am religiously devoted: all glory be to Thee.

I believe, I admire, I love, I praise, I adore Thee, O most blessed and glorious Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, for being the joint authors of our salvation: all glory be to Thee.

O sacred, and dreadful, and mysterious Trinity, though I cannot conceive Thee, yet let me daily experiment Thy goodness; let Thy grace, O Lord Jesus; let Thy love, O God the Father; let Thy communications, O Holy Spirit, be ever with me.

Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711). The Practice Of Divine Love.

“Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord”

GOD the Father! be thou near,
Save from every harm to-night;
Make us all thy children dear,
In the darkness be our light.

2 God the Saviour! be our peace,
Put away our sins to-night;
Speak the word of full release,
Turn our darkness into light.

3 Holy Spirit! deign to come!
Sanctify us all to-night;
In our hearts prepare thy home,
Turn our darkness into light.

4 Holy Trinity! be nigh
Mystery of love adored,
Help to live, and help to die,
Lighten all our darkness, Lord!

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

JEREMY Taylor (1613-1667) was Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore in Northern Ireland in 1660.

Ordained to the priesthood and elected a Fellow of Gonville and Caius (pronounced “keys”) College in Cambridge in 1633, he came to the attention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, whose patronage brought Taylor to All Souls’ College in Oxford two years later.

Appointed Rector of Uppingham in 1638, Taylor then became a chaplain to the Royalist forces in 1642. A brief spell in prison under the Commonwealth over, he went first to Wales and then eventually to Ireland, as a lecturer. Two years on, he was raised to the Episcopate.

Jeremy Taylor’s most celebrated works are Holy Living and Holy Dying (here in one volume), written in Wales when he was Chaplain to Lord Carbery; they form gentle companions to keeping our faith and guiding the Christian soul through life’s many troubles and joys.

O ETERNAL GOD, who dwellest not in Temples made with hands, the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain thee; and yet thou art pleased to manifest thy presence amongst the sons of men with special issues of thy favour and benediction; make my body and soul to be a temple pure and holy; apt for the entertainments of the holy JESUS; and for the habitation of the holy Spirit.

LORD be pleased with thy rod of paternal discipline to cast out all impure lusts, all worldly affections, all covetous desires from this thy Temple, that it may be a place of prayer and meditation, of holy appetites and chaste thoughts, of pure intentions, and zealous desires of pleasing thee, that I may become also a Sacrifice as well as a Temple, eaten up with the zeal of thy glory, and consumed with the fire of love, that not one thought may be entertained by me but such as may be like perfume, breathing from the altar of incense; and not a word may passe from me, but may have the accent of heaven upon it, and sound pleasantly in thy ears.

Dearest GOD, fill every faculty of my soul with impresses, dispositions, capacities and aptnesses of religion, and do thou hallow my soul, that I may be possessed with zeal and religious affections, loving thee above all things in the world, worshiping thee with the humblest adorations and frequent addresses, continually feeding upon the apprehension of thy divine sweetness, and consideration of thy infinite excellencies, and observations of thy righteous commandments, and the seal of a holy Conscience as an antepast of eternity, and consignation to the joys of Heaven, through JESUS CHRIST our Lord. Amen.

The Great Exemplar. Section XI: Of The Religion Of Holy Places.

See also Charles Wesley, O Thou Who Camest From Above.

A pulpit in Canterbury Cathedral

A PROFOUND thought for Easter Week comes from Bishop Anthony Sparrow (1612-1685), who is writing about the symbolism of the architecture of a traditional English church.

IN the nave, we shall mention but two things as observable here; first, the doors, called ωραίας, the beautiful doors or gate, Acts iii. 2, because those that had entered them might see the whole beauty of the church; and the pulpit, άμβων, which stood in the midst or side of the nave.

This signifies the stone rolled away from the sepulchre; and because the angel, sitting upon it, preached the Gospel of the resurrection of Christ to the women, St. Matt. xxviii. 6, the Priests and Deacons, imitating the angel’s pattern, from this pulpit, publish and proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel.

A Rationale On The Book Of Common Prayer. Of Chancels, Altars, Fashion Of Churches.

Bishop Sparrow thus reminds us that Easter Day is celebrated every Sunday in our churches. Indeed, each week recalls Holy Week, with the betrayal on Wednesday and the crucifixion on Friday, hence we say the Litany on those days.

A Book of Family Prayers (1824) has this prayer for a Friday.

MAY we constantly bear in mind all that Thy dear Son has done and suffered for us. When we read in Thy Holy Word, of His life of patience and humility, of His devotedness to the service of God and man, of His agony and bloody sweat, of the cruel mocking and scourging to which He was exposed, of His lingering and painful death upon the cross, and above all, of the anguish of His soul, when sinking under the wrath of God, voluntarily incurred for man’s sake —When we read of these things, O make us deeply to feel the evil of sin, and the exceeding love of God; and may we earnestly endeavour, through Thy grace assisting us, to follow the blessed precepts contained in the Holy Scriptures.

And then this to be said every Lord’s Day, as a commemoration of Christ’s victory over the grave.

A Prayer On Any Sunday

O THOU, who, as on this day, didst burst the bands of death, and rise triumphant from the grave; Thou who livest, and art alive for evermore Rev 1:18, assist us, a Family of sinful creatures, that we may approach acceptably the Throne of Grace, and pour out upon us, we beseech Thee, the spirit of grace and of supplications
Zech 12:10.

May this holy day, set apart, and sanctified by Thee Gen 2:3, be a Sabbath of blessing throughout the world, and especially to us now gathered together before Thee, to all connected with us by the bonds of nature or affection, and to this country in general.

More by Anthony Sparrow here.

Crown Of Thorns, by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890)

THE WAY OF THE CROSS (Latin Via Crucis) is a series of fourteen meditations on the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

The devotion has its roots in ancient pilgrimages to the Holy Land, but was popularised as a chapel prayer by Francis of Assisi (?1182-1226) and the Order he founded.

Today, it is followed chiefly during Lent and Passiontide, as Christians attempt to come to terms with the significance of the death of the incarnate Son of God.

This is something we can never adequately understand or appreciate, something which always bursts the boundaries of imagination or emotion. All that is left is to tell the story again and again.

TELL ME the old, old story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply, as to a little child,
For I am weak and weary, and helpless and defiled.

Tell me the old, old story, tell me the old, old story,
Tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and His love.

Tell me the story slowly, that I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.
Tell me the story often, for I forget so soon;
The early dew of morning has passed away at noon.

Tell me the old, old story, tell me the old, old story,
Tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and His love.

Read all…

The theme of the Way Of The Cross is simple: “taking up our cross” (see Mt 16:24), that is, imitating Jesus’s self-denial both for the sake of others and for the sake of our own everlasting life.

PROPOUND to your eyes and heart the example of the holy Jesus upon the cross; he endured more for thee, than thou canst either for thyself or him: and remember, that if we put to suffer, and do suffer in a good cause, or in a good manner, so that in any sense your sufferings be conformable to his sufferings, or can be capable of being united to his, we shall reign together with him. The high way of the cross, which – the King of sufferings hath trodden before us, is – the way to ease, to a kingdom, and to felicity.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667). Holy Living. Chapter II, Section V: Against Impatience.

I have prepared my own version, using the list of wholly Scriptural “stations” proposed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 (here). For each one, there are some prayers taken from the Book of Common Prayer, a suitable passage of Scripture, and a hymn.

Lest there be any doubt, there is not one word of this devotion which offends against Scripture or the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. No images are venerated, and no saint is invoked.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

WE tend to think of Samuel Johnson as a master of put-downs, courtesy of modern collections of quotations.

In fact, he was a thoughtful, rather vulnerable man, apparently suffering from Tourette’s syndrome, who experienced prolonged attacks of melancholia and recurrent illness, and was constantly frustrated with what he saw as his inability to learn from his mistakes or get his life in some kind of order.

Someone we can all identify with in one way or another, I suspect.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, look down with mercy upon me, and grant that I may turn from my wickedness and live. Forgive the days and years which I have passed in folly, idleness, and sin. Fill me with such sorrow for the time mispent, that I may amend my life according to thy holy word; strengthen me against habitual idleness, and enable me to direct my thoughts to the performance of every duty; that while I live I may serve Thee in the state to which Thou shalt call me; and at last, by a holy and happy death, be delivered from the struggles and sorrows of this life, and obtain eternal happiness by thy mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

St Maximus The Confessor (?580-662)

ACCORDING to St Maximus the Confessor (?580-662) in his Mystagogia,

THE entrance of the people into the church with the bishop represents the conversion of the unfaithful from faithlessness to faith, and from sin and error to the recognition of God; as well as the passage of the faithful from vice and ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

I have quoted before, and have placed on my front page, a passage from Bishop J. B. Lightfoot’s sermons which I believe to be of the greatest possible importance for traditional Anglicanism.

THE past is beyond recall. Put it behind you. The future is full of magnificent opportunities. Endeavour to realise them. Be energetic, be courageous, be hopeful. In the agony of your contrition, from the depths of your despair, listen to the Divine Voice which summons you: “Let the dead bury their dead; dead opportunities, dead regrets, dead failures; yes even, dead sins, and follow thou Me”.

It seems to me right, then, that it has been customary since the time of Queen Elizabeth I, as confirmed in Canons and in the writings of our senior bishops, to make a discreet bow of the head toward the altar on entering and leaving a church.

That small action is to acknowledge the sole source of our bodily and spiritual renewal. It is to own that statement in our Articles, that “we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will” (Art. X “Of Free will”).

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people render thee true and laudable service, grant that I may join the prayers and praises of thy holy church with reverence and devotion, hear thy word with attention, and obediently follow the same; that I may be now and ever acceptable in thy sight, through my Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thomas Bisse. Prayer On Entering A Church.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

THE Puritans in the Interregnum did away with set forms of common prayer, and allowed ministers to make up the service for themselves. But Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) wanted the best of both worlds.

IF any man hath a mind to exercise his gift of prayer, let him set himself to work and compose books of devotion, (we have need of them in the church of England, so apparent need that some of the church of Rome have made it an objection against us,) and this his gift of prayer will be to edification.

What other liturgies hard-wired into the service books, though often unheard by the congregation at large, Anglicans left for popular manuals of prayer such as A Companion To The Altar by William Vickers (d. 1719), or The Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), from which the following lines are taken.

EVEN so vouchsafe to admit me also, a bruised, a wretched, and exceeding sinful creature, to a communion and participation in the spotless, holy, quickening, and saving sacrament of thy most blessed body and precious blood.—Liturgy of St. Chrysostom.
Look down, O Lord our God, from thy holy habitation, and from the throne of glory in thy kingdom, and come and bless us.—Deut 26:15.
O thou who sittest on high with the Father, and here, unseen, art present with us, come down, and sanctify these gifts presented to thee, and those for whom, and those by whom, and the purposes whereunto they are offered.—Liturgies of St. Chrysost. and St. Basil.

The great advantage of this method is that, without imposing on anyone else, the communicant is drawn into following the liturgy much more closely. The more I think about this discipline of intelligently shadowing the unfurling structure of the liturgy, the better I like it.

WE, therefore, O Lord, in the presence of thy sacrament, being mindful
Of the saving passions of thy Christ,
Of his life-bestowing cross,
Of his most precious death,
Of his three days’ burial,
Of his resurrection from the dead,
Of his ascension into heaven,
Of his seat at the right hand of thee, his Father,
Of his second advent in glory and in terror,

Beseech thee, O Lord, that we, taking part in thy sacraments with the pure testimony of our conscience, (2 Cor 1:12) may be incorporated in the blessed body and blood of thy Christ: And that, worthily receiving them, we may have Christ dwelling in our hearts, (Eph 3:17) and become a temple of thy Holy Ghost:—1 Cor 6:19.

You can find some selected prayers of preparation for Holy Communion etc. here.

THE Orgelbüchlein by J. S. Bach is a collection of short chorale preludes for the Christian year. Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, which you can listen to in the video opposite, is a setting of the Lutheran melody for the Lord’s Prayer.

OUR Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day’ our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711) composed a series of catechetical prayers intended to take adults through the Catechism, teaching as well as praying (see here). Among these, are the following reflections on the Lord’s Prayer:

AH, Lord, there is a dark cloud spread over my soul, that intercepts Thy beams. I cannot clearly see, I cannot fully know, how lovely Thou art. Ah, Lord, whenever any gleams of Thy loveliness break in upon my spirit and attract my will, a crowd of strange loves importune and tempt me to wander after them. …

I ADORE and love Thee, O munificent Goodness, for inviting (Psalm 50:15), for commanding us to pray (Phil 4:6). I adore and love Thee for pouring out Thy Holy “Spirit of grace and supplication” (Zech 12:10) on us, to help our infirmities, to assist us in praying, to make “intercessions for us, with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered,” (Rom 8:26) with the utmost ardours of a penitential and indigent love. I adore and love Thee for giving us so many glorious promises (Matt 7:7) of hearing our prayers, so many firm assurances of a gracious acceptance. …

GLORY be to Thee, O beloved Jesu, who, in teaching us to call God Father, hast taught us to pray with the affections of a child, with reverential love, and reliance on the paternal care, and benignity, and love, of our heavenly Father (Isaiah 63:15-16; Luke 11:13; Mal 1:6).

Bishop Thomas Ken, “Exposition Of The Church Catechism”