Doing the Litany (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

Discussion in 'Faith, Devotion & Formation' started by Stalwart, Nov 18, 2020.

  1. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    So I've recently started doing it, partly because it was the part of the 1662 BCP which I wasn't very familiar with, and partly because I've been feeling the need to do something for our 2020 US elections. The widespread fraud and corruption on an unheard scale meant that I needed to up my game and do something which I wasn't used to before.

    So I've started doing the Litany, and although it is painful to go through, I've decided to do it nearly every single day, start my every morning with it, until the corruption and fraud in our great nation start to clear out.

    So I've been wanting to ask you all here about your experiences of it. It is painful and intense, wow. And it really forces you to keep still, and submit to God rather than chase your own human/limited/mortal fancies. In our busy world, going through this Litany has really forced me to a new level.

    http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/litany.pdf
     
  2. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I have never prayed the 1662 but I do pray the 2019 Litany. I have prayed the 28 but prefer the 2019. I will try to join you in the mornings and pray the litany before I go to work.
     
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  3. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    It still blows my mind that the 1662 BCP expects the Litany to be done after every Morning Prayer, and explicitly lists it as mandated on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every week of the year.

    Did they really do it that much?
     
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  4. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    They must have had a lot of people in those days who needed reminding of the faith and a lot of people who needed to be delivered from "all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion ; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism ; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Commandment".

    Come to think of it, what better time than this, with what's going on in the White House and No. 10 Downing Street?
    .
     
  5. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I prayed it this morning. What a call to repentance and moral behavior early in the morning.
     
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  6. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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  7. Fr. Brench

    Fr. Brench Well-Known Member Anglican

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    It doesn't expect the Litany daily, just on those three days per week and other occasions as appointed.

    You can tell that it fell into disuse over time by how its rubrics get more and more loose as the American revisions go through. The fact that the 1979 Prayer Book only had it in traditional language is testimony to how it was viewed by that point: a mere relic. I'm very thankful that the 2019 book actually begins to reverse that trend, by suggesting some basic use for it again.
     
  8. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Well we know that a lot of piety was gone out of the Episcopal Church in the 70s. You could easily start saying that most of the Church was already verging into heresy. The 1979 wasn't the beginning of the end, it was completion of the decline (for how could they have passed it if they weren't already declining)? The publication of the 1979 BCP signaled the end of Anglicanism in the Episcopal Church, after which TEC became just a walking corpse, which finally fell down in this year, 2020, a few weeks ago when they finally removed the last remaining orthodox bishop (Bishop Love). So I'm not surprised that TEC in 1979 relegated our wonderful Litany to a relic, just as they relegated our doctrine in the Articles to the back as a mere "historical document".

    Anyhow back to the positives,
    I know but still that's a big ask! It's taking all of my spiritual muscle to get through it on most days of the week, it is a difficult and painful liturgy to undertake. Granted that I'm over-doing it because of the current political climate, but I just can't imagine having the strength to do it three times a week (and more) for the rest of my life.

    I guess I am shocked/impressed that the Church considered this one of the default normative spiritual practices of one's piety. Unless you think that the Litany, as the Matins/Morning Prayer itself, was not a regulative semi-daily spiritual practice for every layman in the Church?
     
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  9. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    Just out of interest: What has the USA, Rebel Nation ;) replaced this with;?

    That it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee, in righteousness and holiness of life, thy servant ELIZABETH, our most gracious Queen and Governor;

    We beseech thee to hear us , good Lord.

    And which President and Governor are you beseeching for at the moment? Trump or the one who won the election?

    In Trump's case 'righteousness and holiness of life' seems a big ask, but then anything is possible with God. :laugh:
    .
     
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  10. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    We are talking about Trump as he still the president for two more months. Biden is the presumable president elect
     
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  11. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    I guess he needs the beseeching for the most, though it must be quite stressful for Biden.

    What is your wording for "thy servant ELIZABETH, our most gracious Queen and Governor" though. You didn't say.
    .
     
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  12. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    We dont have it. It says president/prime minister/ monarch
     
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  13. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    That's OK. Only asking.
     
  14. Fr. Brench

    Fr. Brench Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Yes I am very aware :) I cited that as a "final nail" sort of thing. But if you follow the American Prayer Books before 1979, the Litany has less and less prominence, so that particular decay of tradition was a long time coming.

    As for the regular use of the Litany, it may help to consider the context of its appointments. Wednesdays and (especially) Fridays were/are traditional days of fasting. While the Church of England took away the Romish minutiae of rules about how exactly to fast, it supplied that Litany as a fast-day devotion. If you think of the Litany as the replacement for one of your meals in the day (especially if you detatch it from Morning Prayer) then suddenly it makes a lot more sense and is far less burdensome. Similarly, its appearance on Sunday between Morning Prayer and the Communion is akin to the old Eucharistic fast. Instead of breakfast or coffee hour, the Church offers the Litany before you come to the Holy Table.

    At least, that was the idea.
     
  15. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    Sorry not monarch but sovereign
     
  16. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion;
    from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from
    the hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word
    and Commandment,

    Good Lord, deliver us.
     
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  17. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I have been slacking. I am sorry. I will try to pick it back up
     
  18. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    It's hard right? I feel like I'm building up spiritual biceps, just by forcing myself to go through this every morning. Every day it is getting easier and easier. I could see myself doing this for longer periods of time now, never thought I'd say this.
     
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  19. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    It is a great spiritual exercise. It humbles and puts you in the right frame of mind.
     
  20. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    I figured someone is bound to be curious to see what the Lutherans have for the Litany. This is Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, the ELS book.
    ELHLitany.jpg
    ELHLitany2.jpg

    And the Lutheran Service Book, LCMS' most recent liturgies.
    LCMSLitany.jpg
    In my experience of attending Lutheran Churches for about 3 1/2 years, I only heard the Litany said once. And it was inserted into a Vespers service to inaugurate the beginning of the school year at a Lutheran college.

    Also, this is purely speculative and I'm not the one to research this at the moment, but the differences in structure may represent the variation in national tradition one sometimes encounters in Lutheran liturgy. ELS' provenance is Norwegian and LCMS' is German.