Introduction to the Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes
Not to be confused with the legendary knight of Camelot, Lancelot Andrewes was a 17th century Anglican bishop and one of the founding fathers of Anglican Christianity. Although he did not sit at the Round Table with King Arthur, he certainly deserves a seat at the table of Anglican giants like Richard Hooker, John Jewel, John Donne, George Herbert, and Thomas Cranmer.
Lancelot Andrewes served as chaplain and preacher to King James and as the leading translator of the Authorized Version of the Bible, which we know as the King James Bible. He and John Donne were considered the most eloquent and popular preachers of their day; however, Andrewes’ sermons were much more complex and academic; and, while many read John Donne’s poems and sermons today, few read Lancelot Andrewes, even though poet T. S. Eliot used the opening of one of his Epiphany sermons as the inspiration for his poem “The Journey of the Magi”:
A cold coming we had of it.
Just the worst time of the year
For a Journey, and such a long journey:
The way deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
Ironically the work of Lancelot Andrewes that most people read today is a text that he never intended to have published, his Preces Privatae or “Private Devotions.” Although a preacher, scholar and bishop of Chichester, and Ely, and Winchester, Lancelot is most celebrated today for being a man of prayer. His normal routine was to spend five hours a day in prayer; and his personal, private prayers, the prayers that he prayed when “he remembered God upon his bed and meditated in the night watches” (as our Psalm puts it) were written down and published after his death as his “Private Devotions.”
The heart of the Devotions is a set of seven prayer exercises, one for each day of the week; and the themes follow the six days of Creation. All seven daily devotions share the same structure with six sections: a brief introduction; a confession, a prayer for grace, a profession of faith (often based on the Creed), intercessions, and a concluding thanksgiving. Our reading from First Timothy emphasizes these kinds of prayers when it describes “supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings” which are to “be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” English scholar F. E. Brightman has observed that Andrewes’ Devotions are to private prayer what the Prayer Book is to the church’s public worship.[1]
While the Private Devotions are intended to be used for private and personal use, today’s Gospel invites me to share his prayers with you today. Just as Jesus’s disciples saw him praying privately in a certain place and asked for him to teach them his prayers so too can Lancelot Andrewes teach us his prayers (all based on Scripture and ancient church tradition) as we gather in this certain place.[2] Professor of Historical Theology Fredrica Thompsett has suggested reading the Devotions while walking a labyrinth, reading one line with each deliberate step towards the center.[3] Thomas Merton, who was baptized Anglican and later became Roman Catholic, wrote, “I have been using the prayers of Lancelot Andrewes at night in the hermitage.[4] I will spend an afternoon in the woods with them one of these days.”[5] This morning, we will be using the prayers of Lancelot Andrewes as we walk in the woods. We will be using the prayers he wrote for the Seventh Day of the Week, which includes themes for the Seventh Day of Creation, which is the day of rest.
May we find rest and refreshment as we pray the personal prayers of Lancelot Andrewes surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation, the same creation that moved God to rest.
[1] As cited in Richard Schmidt, Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality (Grand Rapids MI: William Eerdmans, 2002), 37.
[2] Lancelot Andrewes summed up the foundational sources of Anglican and Christian teaching with these words: “One canon reduced to writing by God Himself, two testaments, three creeds [Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian], four general councils [Nicaea – 325, Constantinople – 381, Ephesus – 431, Chalcedon – 451], five centuries of writings by Church Fathers, the centuries before Constantine and the two after.” Everything in his Preces Privatae is derived from these sources.
[3] As cited in Richard Schmidt, Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality (Grand Rapids MI: William Eerdmans, 2002), 38.
[4] Thomas Merton, “Letter to A. M. Allchin,” The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1985, p. 27.
[5] Thomas Merton, “Letter to Etta Gullick,” The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1985, p. 363.
The First Day (Sunday)
The Third Day (Tuesday)
The Fourth Day (Wednesday)
The Fifth Day (Thursday)
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 