Friday, September 7, 2007

Thomas More - last prayer before execution

PRO AMICIS

ALMIGHTY GOD, have mercy on N. and N. (with special meditation and consideration of every friend, as godly affection and occasion requireth)

PRO INIMICIS

ALMIGHTY GOD, have mercy on N. and N., and on all that bear me evil will, and would me harm, and their faults and mine to-gether, by such easy, tender, merciful means, as thine infinite wisdom best can devise, vouch-safe to amend and redress, and make us saved souls in heaven together where we may ever live and love together with thee and thy blessed saints. O glorious Trinity, for the bitter passion of our sweet Saviour Christ. Amen.

Lord, give me patience in tribulation and grace in everything to conform my will to thine: that I may truly say: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in coelo et in terra.

The things, good Lord, that I pray for, give me thy grace to labour for. Amen.


From English Prayers and Treatise on the Holy Eucharist , by Thomas More, edited by Philip E. Hallett (London: Oates and Washbourne, 1938).

copied from Thomas More Studies

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Enemies aren't lovable (by definition)

by Susan Mark Landis
August 15, 2006

Lord, the hardest thing you asked
Was that we love our enemies. (Matthew 5:44)

We know how we'd like to love them:
We'd love our enemies to be far away.
We'd love them not to compromise our security.
We'd love them not to scare us or change the way we live.
We'd love them to be lovable.

You know, God,
We'd love it to be popular to love enemies.
We'd love our neighbors to respect us for this good deed.
We'd love the people on the news to provide examples of how to love.

But then, if loving enemies were easy,
Jesus wouldn't have told us about the tax collectors and gentiles,
Who love only their friends. (Matthew 5:46-47)
If loving enemies were easy, we know
We wouldn't need God's strong arms to bear us up in difficult times.
We wouldn't need the blood of Christ to save us from human sin.
We wouldn't need the Spirit flowing among us, wiping our tears.
We wouldn't need the Bible to tell us what the world does not.

God of all mercy,
Who loved us when we were your sinful enemies, (Romans 5:8)
Who saved us through your immeasurable grace,
Who gave us a gift we did not deserve,
Let us imitate you by loving those who are yet our enemies. (Ephesians 2:1-22)

Teach us to know how to love enemies,
To wish them the best of the life you intend each human to have,
And then pray and act so those wishes come true.
Teach us hope, so we know that with your blessing, impossible dreams become reality.
Teach us faith, so we know that only the strength to stop hating will halt the cycles of violence and revenge.
Teach us forgiveness, which we know is suffering love through piercing tears.
Teach us, O Lord, your ways.

When our community looks at our congregation,
Hears our words and sees our deeds,
Help them to know that you, the God of love, live among us
And that they can come to us to learn about Christian love of enemies.

(Thanks to Mary Ellen Meyer for sending me this prayer/meditation.)

A prayer for enemies

by Tom Beutel
September 21, 2004

(The following is a prayer that the author led with the faculty of the university in which he teaches, in January 2003 before the start of the Iraq war.)

Lord God, sovereign God of the universe, savior and deliverer,
we pray first that you would help us by the indwelling of your Holy Spirit to take our refuge in you and not in our own strength or plans.
We pray that you would help us to resist the temptation to usurp your role, and to allow you to deal with each person, even those who do evil to us,
according to your knowledge and your designs.

We earnestly pray for all who would do us harm.
Help us to understand in what ways we may be provoking the hatred of our enemies;
help us to understand the frustration or desperation that may lead some to strike out against others;
help us to love and not to hate;
help us to want to pray for our enemies, for their salvation.

We know that you do not wish for any to perish.
We ask that your mighty presence be with those who embrace terrorism, and with their leaders.
We pray especially for Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
Lord, we do not ask that you would assist them in their aggressive actions,
but that you would open their eyes to you,
and that you would soften their hearts until they repent and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ.
May it be in our lifetime that we could call these men brothers in Christ.

In the name of Jesus your Son we pray,
Amen

Thanks to Mary Ellen Meyer for sending me this prayer