Private Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes for the Sixth Day (Friday)
Introduction
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind…[and] let us make humanity in Our image, according to our likeness”…and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day – Genesis 1:24, 26, 31
New eyes awaken…And I am drunk with the great wilderness of the sixth day in Genesis. – Thomas Merton[1]
In his Friday morning prayers, Bishop Lancelot gives thanks for all the beasts created on this day, beasts that provide “food, clothing, and help” for the human family, who also came into being on the first Friday. Made in God’s image and likeness, we humans have been commissioned as stewards and guardians over God’s good earth. Although equipped with numerous gifts (heart, emotions, eyes, ears, etc.) and noetic guides (revelation of God, writings of the law, etc.) to help us care for God’s Creation, we remain in need of the salvation that was won for us by Christ who suffered on our behalf on Good Friday.
His prayer of confession includes petitions of the Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zechariah), meditations on the Passion, the powerful prayers of St. Dismas (Luke 23:42) and St. Stephen (Acts 7:60), and a portion of Psalm 85.
In the prayer for grace, Andrewes asks for help relinquishing the works of the flesh and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19 – 23). He asks God to bestow upon him the sevenfold fullness of the Holy Spirit described by the prophet Isaiah (11:2) and the spiritual gifts listed by St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (12:8 – 10). Before concluding with St. Paul’s promise of the peace of God that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7), he prays a medieval prayer addressed to Christ known as the Anima Christi (“the Soul of Christ”), which is included at the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556). While the authorship of the Anima Christi is unknown, the prayer dates to the early 14th century.
In the Friday Creed, Andrewes follows each statement of his belief in God the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier, the Grafter, etc. with petitions for God’s continued favor, concluding with prayers from Psalm 119.
In his Intercessions, he covers a large swath of people with relatively few words, interceding for all siblings in Christ, for those who hate us and love us, and for those whom we have promised to remember in our prayers.
Andrewes returns, in his prayer of Gratitude, to his meditations on the Passion of Christ and the fulfillment of the promise of the life-giving seed on Good Friday. Christ, known as the Lamb of God, suffered death on the 14th of Nisan, which is the day when the Passover Lambs were sacrificed. The Friday prayers close with the ancient apocalyptic words of praise to the worthy Lamb of God who was slain (Revelation 5:9 – 13; 7:10 – 12), words that end with the rare “Amen,” since the “Amens” are included in the Scriptures.
In a poem titled “A Psalm,” Thomas Merton writes, “New eyes awaken…And I am drunk with the great wilderness of the sixth day in Genesis.”[2] I imagine that Merton, who loved praying the prayers of Lancelot Andrewes, would have especially appreciated this Friday Prayer about “the great wilderness of the sixth day,” with its gratitude for the gift of our eyes, its petition for deliverance from a debased drunkenness, and its celebration of that holy anointing that Charismatic Christians today call “drunkenness in the Spirit.”
1. Creation
In the morning my prayer comes before You.[3]
Blessed are You, O Lord,
who brought forth the beasts of the earth, and the livestock,
and everything that creeps upon the earth,
for food, clothing, and help;
and who made humanity in Your image and blessed them
to steward the earth.
You gave us wisdom and creativity,
breathed into us the breath of life,
made us in Your image,
and appointed us as guardians over Your works;
You gave your angels charge over us
and over paradise.
You gave us
heart,
emotions,
eyes,
ears,
tongue,
hands,
feet;
life,
sense,
reason,
spirit,
free will,
memory,
conscience;
the revelation of God,
the writings of the law,
the oracles of the prophets,
the melody of the psalms,[4]
the instruction of the proverbs,
the experience of the histories,
the service of the sacrifices.
Blessed are You, O Lord,
for Your great and precious promise on this day,
concerning the life-giving seed,[5]
and for its fulfillment in the fulness of time
on this day.
Blessed are You, O Lord,
for the holy passion
of this day.
By Your sufferings for our salvation
on this day,
save us, O Lord. [6]
2. Confession
I have resisted You, O Lord,
but I return to You;
I have stumbled because of my iniquity,
but I take words with me
and return to you, saying,
“Take away all sin
and receive me graciously,
for I will offer to You the sacrifice of praise with my lips.”[7]
Spare us, O Lord, spare us,
and do not give Your heritage over to punishment,
and do not hand us over to our enemies.[8]
O Lord God, forgive, I pray you!
How shall Jacob stand, for he is small?
Relent, O Lord, concerning the consequences of my sin
and disaster shall not befall us.[9]
While pursuing worthless vanities
I abandoned my own loyalty,[10]
and I have been cast out into the deep.[11]
When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord: [12]
yet I will look again toward Your holy temple;[13]
toward You who brought my life up from the pit.[14]
Who is a God like You,
pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage?
You do not retain Your anger forever
because You delight in mercy. [15]
Turn again and have compassion on us
and subdue our iniquities.
Cast all our sins into the depths of the sea,
according to Your truth,
and according to Your mercy.[16]
O Lord, I heard Your speech and was afraid:
in times of wrath, remember Your mercy.[17]
Behold me, Lord, clothed in filthy garments;[18]
behold Satan standing at my right hand;[19]
yet, O Lord, by the blood of Your covenant,[20]
by the fountain opened to cleanse us from sin and impurities,[21]
wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin;[22]
save me as a brand plucked from the fire.[23]
Father, forgive me, for I knew not,
truly I knew not, what I did,[24]
in sinning against You.[25]
Lord, remember me
when You come into Your kingdom.[26]
Lord, do not hold my enemies’ sins against them;[27]
Lord, do not hold mine against me.
By Your sweat bloody and clotted, Your soul in agony,
Your head crowned with thorns, bruised with staves,
Your eyes a fountain of tears,
Your ears full of insults,
Your mouth moistened with vinegar and gall,
Your face stained with spitting,
Your neck bowed down with the burden of the cross,
Your back ploughed with the marks and wounds of the scourge,
Your hands and feet pierced through,
Your strong cry, “Eli, Eli!”[28]
Your heart stabbed with the spear,
the water and blood thence flowing,
Your body broken, Your blood poured out,
Lord, forgive the iniquity of Your servant,
and cover all his sin.
Take away all Your wrath:
turn from the fierceness of Your anger.
Restore us, O God of our salvation,
and cause Your anger toward us to cease.
Will You be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong Your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that Your people may rejoice in You?
Show us Your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us Your salvation.[29]
3. Grace
Help me to relinquish[30]
the works of the flesh:
adultery, fornication, filth, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
wrath, greed, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, rivalries, and the like.[31]
Help me to bring forth in my life
the fruits of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, and self-control;[32]
Bestow upon me
Your Spirit,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
of counsel and might,
of knowledge and wonder in the Lord;[33]
the gifts of the Spirit:
the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge,
faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles,
prophecy, discernment of spirits,
diverse kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.[34]
May Your strong hand, O Lord, be ever my defense;
Your mercy in Christ my salvation;
Your word of truth my instructor;
the grace of Your life-giving Spirit
my consolation, all along, and at last.
The soul of Christ hallow me,
and the body of Christ strengthen me,
and the blood of Christ ransom me,
and the water of Christ wash me,
and the bruises of Christ heal me,
and the sweat of Christ refresh me,
and the wound of Christ hide me.[35]
And may the peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep my heart and mind
in the knowledge and love of God.[36]
4. Creed
I believe
You have created me:
despise not the work of your own hands;
I believe
You made me in Your image and likeness:
do not let your likeness be blotted out.
I believe
You have redeemed me in Your blood:
may the reward of that redemption never perish.
I believe
You have called me Christian after Your Name:
disdain not Your own title.
I believe
You have hallowed me in regeneration through Holy Baptism:
destroy not Your holy work.
I believe
You have grafted me into the good olive tree,
the member of a mystical body:
do not cut off a member of Your own body.
Remember the word You gave to Your servant
upon which You have caused me to hope.[37]
My soul faints for Your salvation
but I hope in Your word.[38]
5. Intercession
Let us pray for the welfare and prosperity
of the global Church,
for Her protection from the enemies of our most holy faith,
for our ancestors and the Church Triumphant,
and for all our brothers and sisters in Christ;
for those who hate us and those who love us.
For those who pity us and those who minster to us.
For those whom we have promised
to remember in our prayers.
For all veterans and those serving in the military.
For the liberation of the captives.
For our parents and siblings and friends who are absent.
For those who voyage by sea.
For those who lie in sickness.
Let us pray also for the fruitfulness of the earth;
and for the soul of every orthodox Christian.
Let us pray God’s blessing on Godfearing leaders,
Orthodox prelates,
the founders and directors of religious communities and centers,[39]
our parents, and all our ancestors
and all the faithful departed.
6. Gratitude
When we transgressed Your command and fell,
You did not pass us by,
nor abandon us,
O God of goodness,
but You visit us in ways manifold,
as a tender Father,
supplying us with Your great and precious promise
concerning the life-giving seed,
opening to us the door of faith,
and transformation life,
and in the fullness of the time
sending Your Christ Himself
to give aid to the seed of Abraham,[40]
and in the oblation of His life
to fulfill the law’s obedience,
and in the sacrifice of His death
to take off the law’s curse,
and in His death
to redeem the world,
and in His resurrection
to revive us:
You Who does all things
to bring the human family into Your embrace,
that we may be partakers
of Your divine nature and eternal glory:
You Who has revealed
the truth of You Gospel
through many and manifold wonders,
through the ever-memorable witness of Your saints,
in their supernatural endurance of torments,
and ultimately through the marvelous conversion of the whole world
to the obedience of faith,
without might, persuasion, or compulsion:
Blessed and praised and celebrated,
and magnified and exalted,
and glorified and hallowed
be Your Name,
its honor and its memory,
and every record of it,
both now and for evermore.
You are worthy to take the scroll,
and to open its seals:
for You were slain,
and You have redeemed us to God
by Your blood
out of every tribe, and tongue,
and people and nation.[41]
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing![42]
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,
be to Him who sits upon the throne,
and to the Lamb,
forever and ever! Amen.[43]
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb![44]
Amen!
Blessing and glory and wisdom,
thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God
forever and ever.
Amen.[45]
[1] Thomas Merton, “A Psalm,” Selected Poems, 84.
[2] Thomas Merton, “A Psalm,” Selected Poems, 84.
[3] Psalm 88:13b
[4] “When psalms surprise me with their music / And antiphons turn to rum / The Spirit sings: the bottom drops out of my soul.” Thomas Merton, “A Psalm,” Selected Poems, 84.
[5] Genesis 3:15. There is a Jewish tradition that the creation, fall and promise of the life-giving seed all took place on the sixth day, Friday. Sanhedrin 38b.
[6] Andrewes is referring to the innumerable spiritual benefits procured to us through Christ’s self-giving Passion and Death on Good Friday.
[7] Hosea 14:1-2
[8] Joel 2:17: “Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your People…”
[9] “After seeing a vision of locusts consuming the grass of the land, Amos cries out, ‘O Lord God, forgive, I pray! How shall Jacob stand, for he is small?’ So, the LORD relented concerning this. ‘It shall not be,’ said the LORD.” Amos 7:2 – 3.
[10] “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy” Jonah 2:8
[11] “For you cast me into the deep” Jonah 2:3
[12] Jonah 2:7
[13] Jonah 2:4b
[14] Jonah 2:6b
[15] Micah 7:18 – Micah means “Who is like God?”
[16] “He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old” Micah 7:19 – 20.
[17] Habakkuk 3:2. The Hebrew word “shimak” is translated as “speech” in the NKJV and KJV. Other translators use the word “renown” (NRSV) or “fame” (NIV) or “report” (ESV).
[18] “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments…” Zechariah 3:3
[19] “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest…and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.” Zechariah 3:1
[20] “As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” Zechariah 9:11
[21] “On that day a fountain shall be opened…to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” Zechariah 13:1 NRSV
[22] Psalm 51:2
[23] And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Zechariah 3:2. John Wesley – brand plucked from the fire
[24] Luke 23:34
[25] “Against You, You only, have I sinned” Psalm 51:4
[26] Luke 23:42
[27] Acts 7:60; St. Stephen’s prayer for those who stoned him to death.
[28] Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34
[29] Psalm 85:2 – 7
[30] Newman writes, “Help me to crucify…”
[31] Galatians 5:19 – 21
[32] Galatians 5:22 – 23
[33] Isaiah 11:2. The sevenfold Spirit: the Spirit of the LORD, of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge and wonder.
[34] 1 Corinthians 12:8 – 10
[35] This prayer is a version of the Anima Christi (“Soul of Christ”), a medieval prayer addressed to Christ, which is included at the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556). While the authorship is unknown, the prayer dates to the early 14th century.
[36] Philippians 4:7
[37] Psalm 119:49 (Zayin)
[38] Psalm 119:81 (Kaph)
[39] Founders of this holy retreat – Chiswick? Andrewes escapes the plague by retreating to Chiswick and preaching a sermon about the plague as a sign of God’s punishment, a sermon that would likely make Albert Camus sick…
[40] Hebrews 2:16
[41] Revelation 5:9 – 10
[42] Revelation 5:12
[43] Revelation 5:13
[44] Revelation 7:10
[45] Revelation 7:12
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 