Another prayer of Christina Rossetti

After finding the prayer by Christina Rossetti yesterday, I did just a bit of quick searching to see what other prayers she’d written. Here’s another keeper:

Prayer of Hope

O Lord, in Whom is our hope, remove far from us, we pray Thee, empty hopes and presumptuous confidence. Make our hearts so right with Thy most holy and loving heart, that hoping in Thee we may do good; until that day when faith and hope shall be abolished by sight and possession, and love shall be all in all.

- Christina G. Rossetti, 1830-1895

A Prayer by Christina Rossetti

Yesterday I came across this great prayer on Lutheran pastor Eric Swensson’s blog

Lord God, whose strength is sufficient for all who lay hold on it, grant us in your mercy to comfort our hearts and be strong. Humility, temperance, purity, largeheartedness, sympathy, zeal – grant us these evidences of faith, servants of hope, fruits of love; for the sake of Jesus Christ, our strength, our righteousness, and our hope of glory. Amen.

(Christina Rossetti, quoted in Fox, A Chain of Prayer, p.161)

This prayer is included in a longer devotional which comes from daily devotional pageof the Word Alone website (a site for reform and renewal in the ELCA). It looks like an excellent resource. Check it out!

Calvin

Now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, conscious of our faults, praying that he may not only forgive us but may daily cleanse us of them. May he remove them far from us. so that we are no longer captive and imprisoned by them. Rather, led and controlled by his Holy Spirit, may we walk in such holiness of life that we may seek above all to yield to his will. And since we know ourselves to be such weak and feeble creatures, may he support us in all our imperfections, until he has rid us of them and fully clothes us with his righteousness.

Pentecost Links Around the Blogosphere

Still under the weather, so for now here are a few quick Pentecost links. I’ll try to post some of my own reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit within the next few days
- Karen:

Pentecost Blog Carnival (I’ve tried not to duplicate too many links. The blog carnival has several EXCELLENT links I have not posted.)

Splendor in the Ordinary: Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost as a Family (FANTASTIC! Don’t miss this…)

Anglican Mainstream has a collection of reflections on Pentecost from various saints & Church Fathers – Must reading! : Pentecost: the living water of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us

Fr. Tim Fountain at Northern Plains Anglican has Come Down O Love Divine, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reflections on Pentecost and a prayer of preparation for Pentecost

Pat Dague at Transfigurations has Pope Benedict’s The Gift of God is the Holy Spirit

Ten O’Clock Scholar: Pentecost: Reignite Your Ember

At A Hen’s Pace: Pentecost Sunday

Cruciform Life: Preparing for Pentecost and Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart

Kingdom People has a Pentecost Prayer

Victor Hoagland has two reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

Amy at On a Joyful Journey has posted St. Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit. I’ll close with that:

Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Saint Augustine of Hippo

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
Amen.

Gregory of Nazianzus on the cure of souls

Today is the feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus

The scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God, and to watch over that which is in His image, if it abides. To take it by the hand, if it is in danger, or restore it, if ruined, to make Christ to dwell in the heart by the Spirit: and, in short, to deify, and bestow heavenly bliss upon, one who belongs to the heavenly host.   

This is the wish of our schoolmaster the law, of the prophets who intervened between Christ and the law, of Christ who is the fulfiller and end of the spiritual law; of the emptied Godhead, of the assumed flesh, of the novel union between God and man, one consisting of two, and both in one.

Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo

Monnica prayed for decades for the conversion of her pagan husband and son.  She was told “it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.”

O Lord, who through spiritual discipline did strengthen Your servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her family, deepen the devotion of the intercessors for the Anglican Consultative Council and use their love and prayers and tears in accordance with Your will for the Anglican Communion.  Amen.

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373

Today is the feast day of Athanasius, the “pillar of the Church” and the church’s “God-given physician of her wounds.” In his battle against the heresy of Arianism, Athanasius was exiled five times. He was successful in winning approval for the phrase in the Nicene Creed which has ever since been recognized as expressing unequivocally the full godhead of the Son: “of one Being with the Father” (homoousios).
Another bishop of Egypt is present at the Anglican Consultative Council, Mouneer Anis, and he is a physician. Please pray that Bishop Anis will defend unequivocally the full godhead of the Son, uphold the body of Christ, and be a God-given physician for her wounds.

Uphold your Church, O God of truth, as you upheld your servant Athanasius, to maintain and proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in the grace of your eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St. Philip and St. James, Apostles

Little is known about these apostles. According to tradition, Philip was crucified in Turkey and James the son of Alpheus crucified in Egypt. The body of James was then sawn in two.

O Father, I don’t know what the future holds for the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church in North America. Grant Your servants grace and strength to bear witness to the truth. May they glorify in life and in death the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

An Easter Praise Litany from New Zealand

The risen Christ meets us at the tomb, and turns our tears to joy.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ comes through our locked doors, and turns our fear to courage.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ comes to daily life and work, and turns our failure to new vision.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ breaks the bread, and turns our despair to hope.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

from a longer Easter service, found here.

St. Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

It is only right,
with all the powers of our heart and mind,
to praise You Father
and Your Only-begotten Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ:
Dear Father, by Your wondrous
condescension of loving-kindness toward us,
Your servants, You gave up Your Son.
Dear Jesus You paid the debt of Adam
for us to the Eternal Father by
Your Blood poured
fourth in loving-kindness.
You cleared away the darkness of sin
By Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.
You broke the bonds of death
and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.
You reconciled heaven and earth.
Our life had no hope of eternal happiness
before You redeemed us.
Your Resurrection has washed away our sins,
restored our innocence and brought us joy.
How inestimable is the tenderness
of Your love!

– Saint Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

found here

Collects & Prayers for the Third Sunday of Easter

Collect One

Almighty God,
who hast given thine only Son
to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin,
and also an ensample of godly life;
Give us grace that we may always
most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit,
and also daily endeavour ourselves
to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect Two

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
Give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened
and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread.
Open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

From the Church of Ireland

Collect for the Second Week of Easter

I’ve fallen behind in posting various Easter collects.  Here is the collect for the second week of Easter

Collect
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Post Communion
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the Church of Ireland

Originally found here in a collection of Easter collects.

Easter Quotes: William Hobart Hare’s Easter sermon in Yokohama, 1891

From Northern Plains Anglican, where there is more:

Let us never in the midst of the business of the Church lose sight of the fact that there is such a mistake as that of being very busy with the affairs of the Kingdom of heaven and yet of possessing very little personal knowledge of the King; nor let us forget in trying to fit our work in with the conditions in which we find ourselves that the supreme need of men everywhere, whatever may be their superficial desires, is just that need which certain Greeks expressed, as we are told in St. John’s Gospel, ‘Sir, we would see Jesus.’ I feel sure that the highest conviction of us all is, however much passing things may for a time divert us, that the supreme desire and effort of a Christian should be to fix his own full gaze, and to fix the gaze of others, upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.

– William Hobart Hare

Collect for a church convention

Meeting this weekend are the diocese of Western Michigan and the Province I synod.

Almighty and everlasting Father, who hast given the Holy Spirit to abide with us for ever: Bless, we beseech thee, with his grace and presence, the bishops and other clergy and the laity here (or now, or soon to be) assembled in thy Name, that thy Church, being preserved in true faith and godly discipline, may fulfill all the mind of him who loved it and gave himself for it, thy Son Jesus Christ our Savior; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for the unity of the church

The Anglican Consultative Council will meet May 1-13.

Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, even as thou and he are one: Grant that thy Church, being bound together in love and obedience to thee, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom thou
didst send, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.