augustine – Page 4 – A Collection of Prayers

You Know Our Needs before We Ask

Almighty God,
you know our needs before we ask,
and our ignorance in asking:
Set your servants free
from all anxious thoughts about the future,
give us contentment with your good gifts,
and confirm our faith
that as we seek your kingdom,
you will not let us lack any good thing;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Augustine of Hippo

Source of this version: Parish Prayers, Compiled and edited by Frank Colquhoun
Hodder and Stoughton, 1967

http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/print_w_comments/62035/

Version in traditional English:

Almighty God, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking: Set free thy servants from all anxious thoughts for the morrow; give us contentment with thy good gifts; and confirm our faith that according as we seek thy kingdom, thou wilt not suffer us to lack any good thing, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A similar prayer is found in the prayer books of the Church of England:

ALMIGHTY God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking: We beseech thee to have compassion upon our infirmities; and those things, which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, vouchsafe to give us for the worthiness of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Source of this version: The Shorter Prayer Book (1946)

Rest in You

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 O Lord God,
give us peace,
for you give us all things:
the peace of rest,
the peace of the Sabbath
which has no ending:
Yes, give us rest in you,
the Sabbath of eternal life.
For you will rest in us,
as you now work in us;
and your rest shall be through us,
as your works are through us.
Amen.

Source: St. Augustine of Hippo

The mentions of Sabbath rest are references to Hebrews 4:9

For Perfect Love

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 Look on us, O Lord,
and let all the darkness of our souls
vanish before the beams of your brightness.
Fill us with holy love,
and open to us the treasures of your wisdom.
All our desires are known to you,
therefore complete what you have begun,
and what your Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.
We seek your face,
turn your face to us and show us your glory.
Then will our longing be satisfied,
and our peace shall be perfect.
Amen.

Source: St. Augustine of Hippo

For Complete Love

220px-sandro_botticelli_050

Lord, my God,
Light of the blind and Strength of the weak;
indeed, also, Light of those that see,
and Strength of the strong;
listen to my soul,
and hear it crying out of the depths.

O Lord,
help us to turn and seek you;
for you have not forsaken your creatures
the way we have forsaken you, our Creator.
Let us turn and seek you,
for we know you are here in our hearts,
when we confess to you,
when we cast ourselves on you,
and weep at your feet,
after all our rugged ways;
and you gently wipe away our tears,
and we weep the more for joy;
because you, Lord, who made us,
remake and comfort us.

Hear, Lord, my prayer,
and grant that I may most entirely love you,
and rescue me, O Lord, from every temptation,
even to the end.
Amen.

Source: St. Augustine of Hippo

“Light of the blind…” may be a reference to Luke 4:18 and similar passages.

“…out of the depths” is a reference to Psalm 130:1

“Let us turn and seek you” may be a reference to Daniel 9:3 and 1 Peter 3:11

“gently wipe away our tears” may be a reference to Revelation 7:17 and Revelation 21:4

Feed My Soul, Quicken My Spirit

brooklyn_museum_-_the_communion_of_the_apostles_la_communion_des_apc3b4tres_-_james_tissot O blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
I thank you for your boundless love
for redeeming the human race
by your precious death.
You shed your blood also for me,
a poor sinner.
Feed my soul with your body,
and quicken my spirit with your blood,
that I may always grow in the knowledge of you,
in your fear and love, and in Christian conduct,
and may abide a true member of your body,
your holy Church.
Amen.

Source: Augustine

Source of this version: Modified from Prayers from the collection of the late baron Bunsen, selected [from Versuch eines allgemeinen evangelischen Gesang – und Gebetbuchs] and tr. by C. Winkworth, 1871, p.181-182

Picture by James Tissot, public domain

Holy Spirit, Come to Us

hortus_deliciarum_pfingsten_und_die_aussendung_des_heiligen_geistes_auf_die_apostel God the Holy Spirit,
you are of one essence with the Father and the Son,
and you proceed from them.
You descended on the Lord Christ in the form of a dove,
and on his disciples as tongues of flame.
We thank you, we praise you,
and pray that you would chase from our souls
all the darkness of evil
and kindle in us the light of your grace
and the fire of your love;
you live and reign,
true God forever and ever.
Amen.

Source: Augustine

Graphic: Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg from Wikipedia.com

Jesus, Bread of Life

brooklyn_museum_-_the_communion_of_the_apostles_la_communion_des_apc3b4tres_-_james_tissot Son of the Living God,
you are the true Bread of Life.
You feed and satisfy with your body and blood
all sorrowful souls and aching consciences
and hungering and thirsting hearts,
and you have invited us to this heavenly feast.
Receive us in your grace,
feed and quicken our poor souls
with your body and blood
for eternal life.
Amen.

Source: Augustine

Picture by James Tissot, public domain

With You Is Refreshment and Strength

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 O Lord our God,
let us find hope under the shadow of your wings.
You will support us,
both when little,
and even to gray hairs.
When our strength is from you, it is strength.
When our own, it is weakness.
We return to you, O Lord,
that our weary souls may rise towards you,
leaning on the things which you have created,
and passing on to yourself,
since you have wonderfully made them;
for with you is refreshment and true strength. Amen.

Source: Augustine

Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers Ancient and Modern
by Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston, Little Brown, 1914, p. 2 #1

Graphic by Sandro Botticeli from Wikipedia.com.

Be the Goal of My Pilgrimage

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 Father,
you are full of compassion,
I commit and commend myself to you,
in whom I am and live and know.
Be the Goal of my pilgrimage,
and my Rest by the way.
Let my soul take refuge
from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts
beneath the shadow of your wings;
let my heart,
this sea of restless waves,
find peace in you O God.
Amen.

Source: Augustine of Hippo

Source of this version: https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/blog/holy-interruptions

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work atwww.theologyofwork.org

Graphic by Sandro Botticeli from Wikipedia.com.

My Heart Rests in You

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 Almighty God,
you care for me as if you thought of me alone,
and you care for all as if all were one.
I see the things of this earth pass away,
and I see other things take their place,
but you remain forever.
Therefore, my God and Father,
to you I entrust all I have received from you,
for then, I can lose nothing.
You, O Lord,
have made me for yourself,
and my heart can find no rest
until it rests in you.
Amen.

Source: Augustine

Source of this version: Freely modified The Hymnal and Order of Service, The Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, 1925, p. 680 #3

Note: Many published prayers attributed to Augustine contain some form of the words “our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Graphic by Sandro Botticeli from Wikipedia.com.