Lord, open our minds to see ourselves as you see us,
Or even as others see us and we see others;
And from all unwillingness to know our infirmities,
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From moral weakness, from hesitation,
from fear of men and dread of responsibility;
Strengthen us with courage to speak the truth
in love and self-control;
And alike from the weakness of hasty violence
and from the weakness of moral cowardice:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From weakness of judgment,
from the indecision that can make no choice
and from the irresolution that carries no choice into act;
Strengthen our eye to see
and our will to choose the right;
And from losing opportunities to serve you,
and from perplexing ourselves and others with uncertainties:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From infirmity of purpose,
from want or earnest care and interest,
from sluggish indolence and slack indifference,
and from all spiritual deadness of heart:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From dullness of conscience, from feeble sense of duty
from thoughtless disregard of consequences to others,
from a low idea of the obligations of our calling,
and from half-heartedness in our service:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From weariness in continuing struggles,
from dependency in failure and disappointment,
from overburdened sense of unworthiness,
from morbid fancies of imaginary back-sliding
Raise us to a lively hope in mercy and in the power of faith;
And from all exaggerated fears and vexations:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From self-conceit, vanity, and boasting,
from delight in supposed success and superiority;
Raise us to the modesty and humility
of true sense and taste and reality;
And from all the harms and hindrances
of offensive manners and self-assertion:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From affectation and untruth, conscious or unconscious,
from pretence and hypocrisy,
from impulsive self-adaptation to the moment
to please persons or make circumstances easy;
Strengthen us to true simplicity;
and from all false appearances:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From love of flattery, from over-ready belief in praise, from dislike of criticism,
and from the comfort of self-deception in persuading ourselves
that others think better of us than we are:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

From all love of display and sacrifice to popularity,
from thinking of ourselves and forgetting you in our worship:
Hold our minds in spiritual reverence;
and from self-glorification in all our words and works:
SAVE US AND HELP US, O LORD

This is an excerpt from The Southwell Litany, Composed by George Ridding, first bishop of Southwell, England (Church of England) and known as the Southwell Litany. The complete Litany may be found on the web site at http://www.dokepiscopal.org/SouthwellLitany.htm

Clergy Corner

 

This month's message comes from the Rev. Maryly Adair. Maryly is the Chaplain for Daughters of the King in the Diocese of Northern California.

 

Words, the Stuff of Relationships

 

Words fly across space-words referencing the exquisite beauty of a sunset, the sound of a night owl, God's creation; words describe human machinations, the taste of a spicy dish from the other side of the world, the majesty of a poem, the elegant ballerina twirling across the stage.They have the power to create in our minds and senses an experience of another, connecting to our own.

 

Whether serious or whimsical,  words allow us to touch one another's world and perceptions. They are a way to get to know another, a way to share ourselves and to build relationship, whether 5 minutes 'new' or a 50-year-long marital chat. Words are the stuff of relationship--  spoken, written, signed, or acted. Words are being in touch, vulnerable in the moment.

 

Communication that binds and enlarges pulls us into deeper meaning and broader reference. We are gifted with a means of communication that can split the minutest hair of experience and perception. Our lives are shared and built upon through words built as high as skyscrapers.

I love the opening lines of John's Gospel. John doesn't start with the particular but with a broad-brush stroke, not of human activity but divine. "In the beginning was the Word, the word--" These words do not let go of us; they become part of us:  Christ, the Word made flesh, embodied. Biblical accounts describe individuals', a whole community's, a whole nation's experience of God and reaching across the globe. Words tell us of a God who loves us and searches us out, like the Shepherd who searches after the one lost sheep, like the woman lighting a lamp to search for a lost coin. Not one of us is outside of God's circle of care and concern nor beyond God's reach. Christ is before us, behind us, and all that. The divine is ever-present, saturating our world-God invisible, immortal.

I am not sure we have words grand enough to describe God's creation or human experience from the inside, or Jesus with us in time and space.  We simply don't. But our attempt, our focus comes from the place within us that yearns, hopes, and reaches for Christ. Our best selves search, rounding the corner to discover God in our midst.

As much as words call us into faith, niggle our conscience, press us to look more deeply into the life of God, they can also be part of other purposes not connected to the Word made flesh. I remember when I first began working with issues of abuse, I was stunned by unspeakable words-words meant to do harm, to control and cut down another. As I heard the stories of children and adults, I found it was often the words that were the most dehumanizing, the most spiritually abusive, cutting into the heart of another. It isn't something one should get used to.

I have become alarmed to hear the same purposes expressed in religious circles, the conversations that proclaim what we are about as Christians, and who is outside the circle, not needed, demonized. The power of words is beyond the physiological hearing mechanism but reaches deep within, touching soul. Words can divide and polarize, creating instant enemies of whole groups and peoples.