Month: August 2023

My wife and I took a few days off over the weekend celebrating my 81st birthday. We were able to visit many wonderful cities, towns and villages in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia as well as viewing it from above from overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We ended the weekend by attending Sunday evening Holy Communion at Good Shepherd Anglican Church, Waynesboro, VA, which featured a powerful sermon on the Pauline letters to the Corinthians by Archbishop Peter Robinson, UECNA.

We are back at home, with both hands are almost fully recovered from Carpal Tunnel surgery in July and August. Today I recorded and posted the needed links to the AIC Podcast Homilies-Morning Prayer-Psalter Series for both Trinity 12 and Trinity 13. These are now linked from both the Welcome and Morning Prayer Homilies pages.

As part of the AIC’s continuing celebration of its second decade on the Web, my intention is to complete the proposed Angels book, which is now in the proof-reading stage, make some needed updates and corrections to several other AIC Bookstore Publications, and start a new series of blog entries focused on themes related to the defense of one’s personal faith against the onslaughts of the anti-religion craze, especially anti-Christian, of the 21st C. I am convinced we are witnesses another of those periods in which civilization collapses.

As always, thank you for your continued support for this Internet-based mission. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

The Anglican Office of Compline during the period from the 12th to the 14th C. before the separation of the Church of England from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome and the first English Book of Common Prayer (1549), differed in form from the other daily offices cited earlier in this series of Blog Posts. It began with an verse and response Invocation, featured more Versicles and Reponses based on the Psalms, and did not have a Confession of reading of the Lord’s Prayer. The version used in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity, included this Closing Prayer before the final Versicles/Reponses and the Blessing. The closing prayer is very much in the Guardian Angel tradition and reflects St. Peter’s warning concerning the devil (the enemy) walking about as roaring as a lion “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8, 9), which is read after the Invocation . In my family we say all the Hourly Offices on Sundays when we are not able to attend a Holy Communion service.

VISIT, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our habitations, and drive far from them all the snares of the enemy.
Let Thy holy angels abide in them to preserve us in peace,
And let Thy blessing be ever upon us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I hope you have found this series of Hours prayers helpful in coping with the stresses of daily level in our anti-Christian world.

Today’s posting is the Third Prayer for Vespers, which I adapted from two Russian and Greek Orthodox evening prayers. The full text of the office is found on pp. 114-120 in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity. The traditional time for Vespers is 5 PM. This text is the most spiritual-minded of the prayers in the several daily offices.

O LORD my God, thou art a good God, Lover of mankind and Guardian of my soul and body; Forgive me the sins I have committed this day in thought, word or deed; Send thy Guardian angel to protect and keep me from all evil this night; Grant me peaceful and undisturbed sleep and keep me from all ill dreams and dark pleasures; Bless me, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; Grant me to rise in the morning to live chastely in deed and word; Implant in my heart a desire to fulfill Thy commandments, and to forsake evil deeds, and to obtain Thy blessings; for in Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; blessed art thou for ever and ever.  Amen.

The final post for this series from the traditional hourly offices will be a Compline prayer, from the last office for the day, usually said before bedtime.

For Ninth Hour (3 PM), the traditional time associated with Christ’s death upon the Cross, here is an Anglican Ninth Hour prayer in the English tradition. The full text of Ninth Hour is found on pages 107 to 113 in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity.

O LORD Jesus Christ, who for our sakes didst tread the paths of death; make known to us the way of life; that as Thou was reckoned with the transgressors in Thy death, and with the rich in Thy burial, so we, who are dead in trespasses and sins, may be raised up by Thee to the land of true riches; who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Today I offer readers the First Prayer for Sixth Hour from our Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity, based upon an early Eastern Orthodox prayer. The format for Sixth Hour is: Invocation, First Prayer, General Confession, Lord’s Prayer, First Chapter (a Scripture reading), First Antiphon, Second Prayer, Second Antiphon, Third Prayer, Third Antiphon, Fourth Prayer, Psalm reading, Third Chapter, F0urth Antiphon, Fifth Prayer, Fifth Antiphon, Sixth Prayer, the Grace, a Benection.

ALMIGHTY Saviour, who at noonday called Thy servant Saint Paul to be an Apostle to the Gentiles: We pray Thee to illumine the world with the radiance of Thy glory that all nations shall come and worship Thee. Amen.

The second in this summer series of daily blog posts suitable for observation of the “Hours” is this highly-spiritual Third Prayer adapted from a circa 5th C. prayer in the Syrian Jacobite tradition. The full text of the office is found in Part Three in the AIC Bookstore Publication: Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity. Third Hour, the second of the traditional Hours offices, is traditionally celebrated around 9 A.M.

CREATOR of the morning, who drove out the darkness and brings light and joy to thy creation;
create in us habits of virtue and drive from us all darkness of sin;
give us light and joy by the glorious rays of thy grace, O Lord our God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In this rapidly anti-religious world, there is comfort in the words of many of the earliest teachings of the Church Universal. One of these is found in the First Hour Office isn the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayer for the Laity, which I adapted from the 1st C. Liturgy of St. Mark, one of the early liturgies of the Church Universal. First Hour is traditionally said around 6 AM. The prayer reflects Christian humility in the presence of the Lord and the understanding of Who it is Who is master of this world and the next — no matter what we may hear otherwise!

We give thee thanks, O Lord our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for all thy goodness at all times and in all places, because thou hast shielded, rescued and guided us all the days of our lives and brought us to this morning hour, permitting us again to stand before thee and implore forgiveness for our sins. We pray and beseech thee, merciful God, to grant in thy goodness that we may spend this day and all the time of our lives without sin, in fulness of joy, health, safety, holiness and reverence of thee; Drive away from us all envy, fear, temptation, the influence of Satan and the snares of wicked men. Amen,

Thank you to our regular followers and occasional viewers for your patience during the interruption in Blog postings. The combined effects of Carpal Tunnel surgery on both the right and left hand made it extremely difficult to operate a computer keyboard. The stitches for the second surgery were removed on Thursday. Typing is still awkward while my hands fully heal. I look forward to being able to produce some longer pieces later this month.

The Podcast Homily for Morning Prayer in our new Psalter Series for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity was uploaded yesterday. The Psalm reading is Psalm 144 (which is Psalm 143 in the Vulgate version). For more details on Psalm 144 and all its uses in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, see the notations on that Psalm in our Bookstore Publication, The Prayer Book Psalter: History, Text & Commentary. In the companion volume, The Prayer Book Psalter: Picture Book Edition, there are two illuminations from the Stuttgart Psalter, produced in the Scriptorium, Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris, circa 820.

Work continues on our latest book project, Angels: In Scripture, Prayer & Christian Tradition. I am waiting a high-resolution image from The Lovell Lectionary, depicting two angels bearing an icon of the Blessed Virgin and the Infant Christ, produced at Glastonbury, England, 1400-1410, and another depicting the dialogue between God and Satan c0ncerning Job from Job 1:6-12, from an early edition of the Bible Historiale, made in Paris, 1st. Qtr., 15th C. The are being digitized by the British Library at their faciity in West Yorkshire, England. I do not expect to receive these until early September.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. Production of our books is made possible by your donations and by book royalties. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!