Christian Prayer

October is Clergy Appreciation Month

October is clergy appreciation month!

Enhance your pastor’s personal prayer life, and possibly help in your pastor’s worship planning by giving these resources as gifts:

Mockup This book strives to bring together the best classic prayers and rites from many sources and arranges them for personal devotion. Most of the prayers are gathered from Christians of the past as a source of prayer for Christians today. Thus, the title Christian Prayer.

This prayer book can also be used for group or congregational worship. The topical prayers can be used as intercessions in corporate worship. The confessions and absolutions and the litanies can be read alone, but they are printed so they can be used with a leader and group.

The topical prayers drew from many sources, all updated in language and edited for consistency.

Seasonal Devotions and Home Liturgies are short rites can be used by families or small groups to observe days and seasons that may not always be celebrated in corporate worship, and some that may establish new traditions in the home. Lighting of an Advent Wreath, Blessing of a Nativity Scene, Chalking the Door for Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Days of Holy Week, Easter Eve and All Saints Day. As this book is being prepared, (April and May of 2020) we are being made painfully aware of the need for worship materials in the home.

Available now in paperback and for Kindle through Amazon.com.

“Through Your Mercy, O Our God…” Prayers from the Mozarabic Church

This book is a collection of prayers from the Mozarabic tradition. The Mozarabs were Christians who lived in Spain under Islamic rule. The prayers in the Mozarabic Rite are free in style and substantial in meaning. Most of the prayers also seem to be very direct in presenting gospel content. They are also very consciously biblical. Some of the Mozarabic prayers also have a definite structure. Sometimes the structure is similar to the parallelism in Hebrew psalms. Some prayers remind me of a modern bullet list. The content, structure and biblical foundation of the prayers give them a special beauty, along with deep meaning.

Available through Amazon for Kindle and in paperback.

“God Be in My Head…” Prayers from Old Sarum

“God Be in My Head…” Prayers from Old Sarum – The Sarum Rite, also called the Use of Salisbury, was a variation of the Roman Rite developed in the 1100s that was known to be high in ceremony. It also had a wealth of richly worded prayers that have influenced Christian worship ever since. Many prayers from the Sarum Rite were used in the Book of Common Prayer. This book gathers prayers from the original Sarum Missals, Breviaries and Psalters and presents them in a single collection in contemporary liturgical English, and may be useful in public or private devotions. Click here to order through Amazon.com.

The New Ancient Collects

The New Ancient Collects – For over 150 years, Bright’s Ancient Collects has been a standard resource for classic Christian prayers. The New Ancient Collects is a complete revision and refreshing of all the prayers in Bright’s Ancient Collects with updated language. Click here to order through Amazon.com.

Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church

Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church – A collection of prayers from the time of Patrick (d. ca. 460-493) to the Synod of Whitby (664), and also from the Celtic Christian tradition that remained after Whitby. A few of the prayers in this book may be familiar from their appearance in other prayer books. Some may be appearing in English for the first time. All prayers (with one exception) are rendered or revised into contemporary English with the hopes that they will be useful in private and corporate worship. Includes prayers from The Antiphonary of Bangor, The Lorrha-Stowe Missal, The Book of Cerne, The Book of Dimma, St. Patrick, St. Columba and many other sources. Click here to order through Amazon.com.

Prayers from the Evangelical-Lutheran Heritage

Prayers from the Evangelical-Lutheran Heritage –A collection of prayers from the history of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church from Luther to Loehe. The collection includes prayers by Johannes Bugenhagen, Georg C. Dieffenbach, Veit Dietrich, Matthias Flacius, Wilhelm Loehe, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Joachim Mynsinger, Johann G. Olearius, Johann Jacob Rambach, and the early agendas and prayer books of the Austrian, Brunswick, Hamburg, Lueneberg, Norwegian, Nuremberg, Pomeranian, Riga, Russian, Saxon, Schleswig-Holstein, and Swedish Evangelical-Lutheran churches. Click here to order through Amazon.com.

Also available for scholars of Celtic Christianity:

The Antiphonary of Bangor and the Divine Offices of Bangor

October Is Reformation History Month

Prayers from the Evangelical-Lutheran Heritage – A collection of prayers from the history of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church from Luther to Loehe. The collection includes prayers by Johannes Bugenhagen, Georg C. Dieffenbach, Veit Dietrich, Matthias Flacius, Wilhelm Loehe, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Joachim Mynsinger, Johann G. Olearius, Johann Jacob Rambach, and the early agendas and prayer books of the Austrian, Brunswick, Hamburg, Lueneberg, Norwegian, Nuremberg, Pomeranian, Riga, Russian, Saxon, Schleswig-Holstein, and Swedish Evangelical-Lutheran churches. Click here to order through Amazon.com.

To preview, download this free pdf of a sampling of the Christmas prayers:

Prayers from the Ev. Lutheran Heritage – Christmas Sampler

Thanksgiving for Healing

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the great physician of body and soul.
We give you thanks and praise for your gifts of healing for __________.
Help him/her continue on the path of healing,
that he/she may rejoice in you,
continue in a life of love and service,
and let his/her light shine to bring glory to you;
you live and reign, now and forever.

Source: Paul C. Stratman, September 5, 2021

Guide Our Leaders, Comfort the Anxious, Lead People in Safety

Lord of the nations,
you remind us
that despite all our earthly might,
weapons and armies,
we are not in control of all things.
Guide the leaders of our nation
to make wise decisions,
for the good of our citizens
and others who are in danger.
Comfort those who are anxious,
and those who mourn.
Lead many out in safety.
Give your people inner peace
as the peace the world gives
is dashed to pieces.
Remind us of your everlasting kingdom,
when all wars and strife will be no more,
and your people will enjoy your perfect peace,
and you will wipe all tears from our eyes;
through your Son, our peace,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Source: Paul C. Stratman, reflecting on the strife in Afghanistan, August 27, 2021.

Deliver Us from Every Evil

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Roman Rite

This prayer is called the “embolism,” a word for a short prayer inserted into another prayer. According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, “[t]he embolism may date back to the first centuries, since, under various forms, it is found in all the Occidental and in a great many Oriental, particularly Syrian, Liturgies.”

Original in Latin:

Libera nos, quæsumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis, da propitius pacem in diebus nostris, ut, ope misericordiæ tuæ adiuti, et a peccato simus semper liberi, et ab omni perturbatione securi: expectantes beatam spem et adventum Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi.

This short prayer is often inserted into the Lord’s Prayer in this manner:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.

Wedding Dinner Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,
we give you thanks and praise
for your great acts of love,
your passion
which overcame sin and death,
and your resurrection
which overcame the power of the grave,
all to make us your own
through your redeeming love.
Pour out your blessings on Katrina and Ethan
that nothing may quench their love
since it is empowered by your great love.
Bless us also,
our friendship, fellowship and conversation,
and bless the gifts we are about to receive
which you have given us for body and life;
for you live and reign
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Source: Paul C. Stratman, July 10, 2021, for the wedding of Katrina Stratman and Ethan Miller.

Prayer references the wedding text, Song of Songs 8:6-7.

A Collection of Prayers Annual Report, June 18, 2021

Today marks the 5th anniversary of A Collection of Prayers. From June 2020 to June 2021 it has been a very interesting year.

Views

Views in the past year are about triple what they were before. I assume that people still in lockdown were looking for devotional materials and prayers. The most sought after prayers were “In the midst of life we are in death,” and litanies, cries to the Lord to have mercy.

The chief views are from English speaking countries (U.S., U. K, Canada and Australia), but there is growing usage from China, Russia and India. There are very few countries that haven’t viewed A Collection of Prayers. For this reason, I added two additional translation links so foreign language users have choices and can choose the translation utility that works best for them.

Links to A Collection of Prayers

WordPress lets me see referrers, that is, other websites that have a link to A Collection of Prayers. The biggest referrers are Christian spirituality websites (www.christianity.com, www.crosswalk.com) and a liturgy website (www.liturgies.net), followed by individual ministries, churches, and even denominational websites.

A Collection of Prayers: Publications

The sale of books pays for the website and supports research. The website’s publishing “imprint” was changed from VaterUnser Books to something more people can understand, A Collection of Prayers: Publications. Imprints on older books will be changed when some updating and editing is done. Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church remains the best seller. “God Be In My Head,” Prayers from Old Sarum and others are beginning to rise in sales.

A Collection of Prayers: Digital Products

I ventured into digital products, focusing on downloadable resources for worship planners. Sales have been slow. I have plans for seasonal resource books and “toolboxes” of collections of prayers, services and resources for worship planners. Two free downloadable devotionals, The Scriptural Way of the Cross and The Way of Light (An Easter counterpart to the Way of the Cross) were made available and both had many downloads. The Way of the Nativity is scheduled for release on December 1, 2021. The Way of Recovery, a devotional based on the Twelve Steps, is also being developed.

Beyond This Website, Books and Products

Various denominational and devotional publishers have contacted me about using A Collection of Prayers as a source.

My own denomination, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, is in the publishing stages of a hymnal project (www.christianworship.com), and I was asked to prepare personal prayers for the hymnal, and to assist editing collects for use as the Prayers of the Day. A few of the Veit Dietrich collects may appear in the Altar Book and electronic resources for the CW21 project.

Link: The Book of Common Prayer with Scripture References

This is not the work of A Collection of Prayers, but a very useful and amazing project.

Someone has researched and compiled Scripture references behind every rite and prayer in The Book of Common Prayer. Here is their preface:

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is a landmark document of the Anglican tradition and the English language. Its unique rites, formulations, and collects are suffused with Biblical quotation and allusion.
This resource is a port of The Book of Common Prayer: With marginal references to texts in the Holy Scriptures published by the Church of England in 1839 (archive.org link), which aims to catalogue each scriptural reference in the text of the 1662 BCP.
Inline Biblical quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (BibleGateway link).

And here is the link to The Scriptural BCP.

Carry Your People through All Earthly Evils

Almighty and eternal God,
your Son Jesus Christ healed the sick,
and strengthened them in both body and soul.
We pray, be gracious also to __________.
Assure him of your forgiveness of sins,
strengthen him by your grace
and carry him through all earthly evils
until you bring him to eternal safety;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Source: Paul C. Stratman, 2021, adapted from a prayer by Veit Dietrich for Epiphany 3.

Note: This prayer is written for those who are sick and suffering, and may be approaching end of life.

The Athanasian Creed

The Athanasian Creed was not written by St. Athanasius, the defender of the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). It seems to have been written about a hundred years later. This creed expands the teaching of the Trinity, and seems to draw from a work by St. Augustine, On the Trinity, from AD 415. The oldest surviving manuscripts of the Athanasian Creed date from the late 8th century. One scholar commented that it reads like the minutes of the Council of Nicaea, with the arguments for the Trinity being presented, and the arguments against it (some repetitive and petulant) being refuted.

The use of the word catholic (note the small c) is referring to the universal Christian faith taught in the scriptures and believed by the Christian faithful.

Traditionally the Athanasian Creed was used in the early morning office of Prime in place of the psalm during the Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost, including Trinity Sunday. Today the Athanasian Creed is sometimes used on Trinity Sunday.

1 Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the catholic faith.

2 Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally.

3 Now this is the catholic faith:

4 We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.

5 For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.

6 But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

7 What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.

8 Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit.

9 The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite.

10 Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit.

11 And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal;

12 as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited.

13 Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit:

14 And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty.

15 Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God:

16 And yet there are not three gods, but one God.

17 Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord:

18 And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.

19 As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.

20 The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten;

21 the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father;

22 the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.

23 Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.

24 And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other;

25 but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.

26 Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.

__________

27 It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh.

28 For this is the true faith that we believe and confess: That our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and man.

29 He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother —

30 existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body;

31 equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.

32 Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ.

33 He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity

34 He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures.

35 For as the rational soul and body are one person, so the one Christ is God and man.

36 He suffered death for our salvation.
He descended into hell and rose again from the dead.

37 He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

38 At his coming all people shall rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds.

39 Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

40 This is the catholic faith.
One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.

Source: This translation is from Christianity Knowledge Base at Fandom.com, and appears to be based on the English translation in the Book of Common Prayer.

Original in Latin:

Quicumque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem:
Quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque servaverit, absque dubio in aeternum peribit.

Fides autem catholica haec est:
ut unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in unitate veneremur.
Neque confundentes personas, neque substantiam separantes.

Alia est enim persona Patris alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti:
Sed Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti una est divinitas, aequalis gloria, coeterna maiestas.

Qualis Pater, talis Filius, talis [et] Spiritus Sanctus.

Increatus Pater, increatus Filius, increatus [et] Spiritus Sanctus.

Immensus Pater, immensus Filius, immensus [et] Spiritus Sanctus.

Aeternus Pater, aeternus Filius, aeternus [et] Spiritus Sanctus.

Et tamen non tres aeterni, sed unus aeternus.
Sicut non tres increati, nec tres immensi, sed unus increatus, et unus immensus.

Similiter omnipotens Pater, omnipotens Filius, omnipotens [et] Spiritus Sanctus.
Et tamen non tres omnipotentes, sed unus omnipotens.

Ita Deus Pater, Deus Filius, Deus [et] Spiritus Sanctus.
Et tamen non tres dii, sed unus est Deus.

Ita Dominus Pater, Dominus Filius, Dominus [et] Spiritus Sanctus.
Et tamen non tres Domini, sed unus [est] Dominus.

Quia, sicut singillatim unamquamque personam Deum ac Dominum confiteri christiana veritate compellimur:
Ita tres Deos aut [tres] Dominos dicere catholica religione prohibemur.

Pater a nullo est factus: nec creatus, nec genitus.
Filius a Patre solo est: non factus, nec creatus, sed genitus.
Spiritus Sanctus a Patre et Filio: non factus, nec creatus, nec genitus, sed procedens.

Unus ergo Pater, non tres Patres: unus Filius, non tres Filii: unus Spiritus Sanctus, non tres Spiritus Sancti.

Et in hac Trinitate nihil prius aut posterius, nihil maius aut minus:
Sed totae tres personae coaeternae sibi sunt et coaequales.
Ita, ut per omnia, sicut iam supra dictum est, et unitas in Trinitate, et Trinitas in unitate veneranda sit.

Qui vult ergo salvus esse, ita de Trinitate sentiat.

__________

Sed necessarium est ad aeternam salutem, ut incarnationem quoque Domini nostri Iesu Christi fideliter credat.

Est ergo fides recta ut credamus et confiteamur, quia Dominus noster Iesus Christus, Dei Filius, Deus [pariter] et homo est.

Deus [est] ex substantia Patris ante saecula genitus: et homo est ex substantia matris in saeculo natus.
Perfectus Deus, perfectus homo:
ex anima rationali et humana carne subsistens.
Aequalis Patri secundum divinitatem: minor Patre secundum humanitatem.

Qui licet Deus sit et homo, non duo tamen, sed unus est Christus.
Unus autem non conversione divinitatis in carnem, sed assumptione humanitatis in Deum.
Unus omnino, non confusione substantiae, sed unitate personae.
Nam sicut anima rationalis et caro unus est homo: ita Deus et homo unus est Christus.

Qui passus est pro salute nostra:

descendit ad inferos:

tertia die resurrexit a mortuis.

Ascendit ad [in] caelos, sedet ad dexteram [Dei] Patris [omnipotentis].

Inde venturus [est] judicare vivos et mortuos.

Ad cujus adventum omnes homines resurgere habent cum corporibus suis;
Et reddituri sunt de factis propriis rationem.
Et qui bona egerunt, ibunt in vitam aeternam:
qui vero mala, in ignem aeternum.

Haec est fides catholica, quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit.