Prayers Ancient and Modern 12/27

“My soul was filled and overwhelmed with light, and love, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and seemed just ready to go away from the body. I could scarcely refrain from expressing my joy aloud, in the midst of the service. I had in the mean time, an overwhelming sense of the glory of God, as the Great Eternal All, and of the happiness of having my own will entirely subdued to his will. I knew that the foretaste of glory, which I then had in my soul, came from him, that I certainly should go to him, and should, as it were, drop into the Divine Being, and be swallowed up in God.” – Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards

Published December 27, 2016 |

Gracious Lord, in whom are laid up all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom, direct me in the ways of life; remove from me the ways of death. Give me a soft and meek spirit, that I may help the succorless, and comfort the comfortless. O my dear Lord, pardon me for the neglect of this duty, and make me to redeem the time with a cheerful constancy—Amen.

The Penitent Pilgrim, 1641.

We entreat Thy mercy with our whole heart, that, as Thou defendest us against things adverse to the body, so Thou wilt set us free from the enemies of the soul; and, as Thou grantest us to rejoice in outward tranquility, so vouchsafe to us Thine inward peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord—Amen.

Leonine Sacramentary, A.D. 440.