It is better to pray than to sink into despondency. If artists know to find something other than despair, then churchmen ought, at the very least, to know this even better.
This is one reason why God sends us Feasts -- to lift our sodden perspectives out of the pragmatic points of view.
The Nativity is coming next Saturday. It should be a day when brightness is launched, as a long-awaited surprise, in the cave of our present darkness.
This week, in prayer, we do what the Church has always done in uncertain times: we become even more Marian, and we ask her for help in prayer.
I am suggesting to you, as I have to my parishioners, to pray this at least once per day, best at the end:
A Prayer for the Week before Christmas
O Lady, Bride of God, virginal, pure, immaculate, blameless, without stain or disgrace, who through your birth-giving united God the Word with our human nature, and established a link between our fallen state and the things of heaven:
O you, only hope of the hopeless, help of the oppressed, ready protection of those who flee to you and refuge of all Christians:
Despise me not a sinner, who have defiled myself with unclean thoughts, words and deeds, and in my laziness have become a slave to the passions of life.
Since you are the Mother of God, who is the only Lover of Mankind, have mercy and compassion on me, as sinner and prodigal son: accept this prayer from my impure lips, and with the power of your maternity, beg your Son, my Lord and God, that He may open for me the depths of His loving-kindness, forgive my countless sins, convert me to true repentance, and make me faithful to His commands.
O you who are compassionate, be my constant companion: in this present life, be with me as an intercessor, as a powerful help to turn away the assaults of my enemies, and to guide me to salvation.
At the hour of death, be with me to embrace my poor soul, and to keep away the dreadful sight of Satan; on the awesome day of judgment, deliver me from eternal punishment and make me an heir of your Son's glory, through the grace and love for mankind of your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him and to His Eternal Father, and to His All-Holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, we give glory, honor and adoration, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
(Prayer of Paul the Cenobite to the Theotokos)
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Posted by: prayer | October 04, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Modern rhetoric has impoverished our ability to see truths in poetry. The ancient ways were better ways in this at least. From GKC:
"To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
Posted by: David | January 13, 2012 at 12:27 PM
Darlene, I'm sorry but your premise is based on an unfortunate grammatical ambiguity. The prayer identifies God as "the only Lover of Mankind."
Which He is, of course, as "mankind" can be loved only by God: the rest of Creation -- i.e., angels, the Theotokos and other Christians and people -- can only love individuals or groups of individuals. But certainly not all mankind.
Only God saves from sin and death, and calls mankind to theosis.
But in a smaller way, the Theotokos saves us when we call upon her contemporaneously in liturgy to pray for us.
This should not be a hard thing to accept. We save each other, frequently, when we pray and forgive and extend love.
The Theotokos does not do anything that any other human being cannot potentially do. We are all called to the theosis exemplified by the Theotokos.
Except for the fact that she is the only one who incarnationally bore God Himself, and thus has a maternal bond that is exclusive to her.
A bond out of which she has taught us to pray, to be humble, and to love.
Posted by: Fr. Jonathan | January 05, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Father, I have come to love and honor the blessed Theotokos in a way I never would have thought possible as a Protestant. However, I cannot pray this prayer in its entirety. I would have to edit it since I consider parts of it to be superfluous.
"Only" hope of the hopeless? If I say to my husband, you are the "only" man that I love, the "only" one I want to be married to - it is understood that there are NO others. The Theotokos is not the "only" hope of the hopeless - Christ our God exceeds her, nailing our sins to the cross and thus making our hope sure and certain.
The "only" lover of mankind? How can this be? Surely the Holy Trinity has loved mankind with a devotion and commitment that exceeds the Mother of God. The Heavenly Father sent his Son into the world out of His love for mankind. Jesus Christ took on flesh, lived a sinless life, died for the sins of the world, defeated the devil in Hades, and rose again out of love for mankind. The Holy Spirit now intercedes on our behalf, He convicts the world of sin, He is our Counselor and the Spirit of Truth - all this is done out of love for mankind.
Ah, but you might say, "that is your Protestant baggage of which you must shed." But I think there are some things I must not ever shed. This is one of them.
Forgive me, Father, if I offend. It is not my intention. I have struggled with these kind of Orthodox prayers regarding Mary from the beginning. So, I must edit in order that God be glorified.
Posted by: Darlene | January 03, 2012 at 02:04 PM