PEREGRINATIONS - Canadian Catholic Perspectives and Reflections by members of the PERSONAL ORDINARIATE OF THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Monday, 30 March 2015
Sunday, 22 March 2015
WHAT SCARES THE NEW ATHEISTS: The vocal fervour of today’s missionary atheism conceals a panic that religion is not only refusing to decline – but in fact flourishing
In this recent article in The Guardian, John Gray points to the racist and intellectually dishonest roots of the New Atheism. Following are some excerpts (bolding is mine):
In 1929, the Thinker’s Library, a series
established by the Rationalist Press Association to advance secular thinking
and counter the influence of religion in Britain, published an English
translation of the German biologist Ernst Haeckel’s 1899 book The Riddle of the
Universe. Celebrated as “the German Darwin”, Haeckel was one of the most
influential public intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century; The Riddle of the Universe sold half a million copies in Germany
alone, and was translated into dozens of other languages. Hostile to Jewish and Christian traditions, Haeckel devised his own
“religion of science” called Monism, which incorporated an anthropology that
divided the human species into a hierarchy of racial groups . . . .
The Thinker’s Library also featured works
by Julian Huxley, grandson of TH Huxley, the Victorian biologist who was known
as “Darwin’s bulldog” for his fierce defence of evolutionary theory. A
proponent of “evolutionary humanism”, which he described as “religion without
revelation”, Julian Huxley shared some of Haeckel’s views, including advocacy
of eugenics. In 1931, Huxley wrote that
there was “a certain amount of evidence that the negro is an earlier product of
human evolution than the Mongolian or the European, and as such might be
expected to have advanced less, both in body and mind”. Statements of this kind were then
commonplace: there were many in the secular intelligentsia – including HG
Wells, also a contributor to the Thinker’s Library – who looked forward to a
time when “backward” peoples would be remade in a western mould or else vanish
from the world.
. . . . The racial theories promoted by
atheists in the past have been consigned to the memory hole – and today’s most
influential atheists would no more endorse racist biology than they would be
seen following the guidance of an astrologer. But they have not renounced the
conviction that human values must be based in science; now it is liberal values
which receive that accolade. There are disputes, sometimes bitter, over how to
define and interpret those values, but their supremacy is hardly ever
questioned. For 21st century atheist missionaries, being liberal and scientific
in outlook are one and the same.
It’s a reassuringly simple equation. In
fact there are no reliable connections – whether in logic or history – between
atheism, science and liberal values. When
organised as a movement and backed by the power of the state, atheist
ideologies have been an integral part of despotic regimes that also claimed to
be based in science, such as the former Soviet Union. Many rival moralities
and political systems – most of them, to date, illiberal – have attempted to
assert a basis in science. All have been fraudulent and ephemeral. Yet the
attempt continues in atheist movements today, which claim that liberal values
can be scientifically validated and are therefore humanly universal.
As an organised movement, atheism is never
non-committal . . . . It always goes with an alternative belief-system –
typically, a set of ideas that serves to show the modern west is the high point
of human development. In Europe from the late 19th century until the second
world war, this was a version of evolutionary theory that marked out western
peoples as being the most highly evolved. Around the time Haeckel was promoting
his racial theories, a different theory of western superiority was developed by
Marx. While condemning liberal societies
and prophesying their doom, Marx viewed them as the high point of human
development to date. (This is why he praised British colonialism in India as an
essentially progressive development.) If Marx had serious reservations about
Darwinism – and he did – it was because Darwin’s theory did not frame evolution
as a progressive process.
. . . . The predominant varieties of
atheist thinking, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, aimed to show that the
secular west is the model for a universal civilisation. The missionary atheism
of the present time is a replay of this theme; but the west is in retreat
today, and beneath the fervour with which this atheism assaults religion there
is an unmistakable mood of fear and anxiety. To a significant extent, the new
atheism is the expression of a liberal moral panic.
. . . . Sam Harris, the American
neuroscientist and author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future
of Reason (2004) and The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Moral
Values (2010), who was arguably the first of the “new atheists”, illustrates
this point. Following many earlier atheist ideologues, he wants a “scientific
morality”; but whereas earlier exponents of this sort of atheism used science
to prop up values everyone would now agree were illiberal, Harris takes for
granted that what he calls a “science of good and evil” cannot be other than
liberal in content. (Not everyone will agree with Harris’s account of liberal
values, which appears to sanction the practice of torture: “Given what many
believe are the exigencies of our war on terrorism,” he wrote in 2004, “the
practice of torture, in certain circumstances, would seem to be not only
permissible but necessary.”)
Harris’s militancy in asserting these
values seems to be largely a reaction to Islamist terrorism. For secular
liberals of his generation, the shock of the 11 September attacks went beyond
the atrocious loss of life they entailed. The effect of the attacks was to
place a question mark over the belief that their values were spreading –
slowly, and at times fitfully, but in the long run irresistibly – throughout
the world. As society became ever more reliant on science, they had assumed,
religion would inexorably decline. No doubt the process would be bumpy, and
pockets of irrationality would linger on the margins of modern life; but
religion would dwindle away as a factor in human conflict. The road would be long and winding. But the grand march of secular
reason would continue, with more and more societies joining the modern west in
marginalising religion. Someday, religious belief would be no more important
than personal hobbies or ethnic cuisines.
Today,
it’s clear that no grand march is under way. The
rise of violent jihadism is only the most obvious example of a rejection of
secular life. Jihadist thinking comes in numerous varieties, mixing strands
from 20th century ideologies, such as Nazism and Leninism, with elements
deriving from the 18th century Wahhabist Islamic fundamentalist movement. What
all Islamist movements have in common is a categorical rejection of any secular
realm. But the ongoing reversal in secularisation is not a peculiarly Islamic
phenomenon.
The resurgence of religion is a worldwide
development. Russian Orthodoxy is stronger than it has been for over a century,
while China is the scene of a reawakening of its indigenous faiths and of
underground movements that could make it the largest Christian country in the
world by the end of this century. Despite tentative shifts in opinion that have
been hailed as evidence it is becoming less pious, the US remains massively and
pervasively religious – it’s inconceivable that a professed unbeliever could
become president, for example.
. . . . For secular thinkers, the
continuing vitality of religion calls into question the belief that history
underpins their values. To be sure, there is disagreement as to the nature of
these values. But pretty well all secular thinkers now take for granted that
modern societies must in the end converge on some version of liberalism. Never
well founded, this assumption is today clearly unreasonable. So, not for the
first time, secular thinkers look to science for a foundation for their values.
It’s probably just as well that the current
generation of atheists seems to know so little of the longer history of atheist
movements. When they assert that science can bridge fact and value, they
overlook the many incompatible value-systems that have been defended in this
way. There is no more reason to think science can determine human values today
than there was at the time of Haeckel or Huxley. None of the divergent values
that atheists have from time to time promoted has any essential connection with
atheism, or with science. How could any increase in scientific knowledge
validate values such as human equality and personal autonomy? The source of
these values is not science. In fact, as the most widely-read atheist thinker
of all time argued, these quintessential liberal values have their origins in
monotheism.
The new atheists rarely mention Friedrich
Nietzsche, and when they do it is usually to dismiss him. This can’t be because
Nietzsche’s ideas are said to have inspired the Nazi cult of racial inequality
– an unlikely tale, given that the Nazis claimed their racism was based in
science. The reason Nietzsche has been excluded from the mainstream of
contemporary atheist thinking is that he exposed the problem atheism has with
morality. It’s not that atheists can’t be moral – the subject of so many
mawkish debates. The question is which morality an atheist should serve.
. . . . It’s impossible to read much
contemporary polemic against religion without the impression that for the “new
atheists” the world would be a better place if Jewish and Christian monotheism
had never existed. If only the world wasn’t plagued by these troublesome
God-botherers, they are always lamenting, liberal values would be so much more
secure. Awkwardly for these atheists, Nietzsche understood that modern
liberalism was a secular incarnation of these religious traditions. As a
classical scholar, he recognised that a mystical Greek faith in reason had
shaped the cultural matrix from which modern liberalism emerged. Some ancient
Stoics defended the ideal of a cosmopolitan society; but this was based in the
belief that humans share in the Logos, an immortal principle of rationality
that was later absorbed into the conception of God with which we are familiar.
Nietzsche was clear that the chief sources of liberalism were in Jewish and
Christian theism: that is why he was so bitterly hostile to these religions. He
was an atheist in large part because he rejected liberal values.
To be sure, evangelical unbelievers
adamantly deny that liberalism needs any support from theism. If they are
philosophers, they will wheel out their rusty intellectual equipment and assert
that those who think liberalism relies on ideas and beliefs inherited from religion
are guilty of a genetic fallacy. Canonical liberal thinkers such as John Locke
and Immanuel Kant may have been steeped in theism; but ideas are not falsified
because they originate in errors. The far-reaching claims these thinkers have
made for liberal values can be detached from their theistic beginnings; a
liberal morality that applies to all human beings can be formulated without any
mention of religion. Or so we are continually being told. The trouble is that it’s hard to make any sense of the idea of a
universal morality without invoking an understanding of what it is to be human
that has been borrowed from theism. The belief that the human species is a
moral agent struggling to realise its inherent possibilities – the narrative of
redemption that sustains secular humanists everywhere – is a hollowed-out
version of a theistic myth. The idea
that the human species is striving to achieve any purpose or goal – a universal
state of freedom or justice, say – presupposes a pre-Darwinian, teleological way
of thinking that has no place in science.
At this point, the dread spectre of
relativism tends to be raised. Doesn’t talk of plural moralities mean there can
be no truth in ethics? Well, anyone who wants their values secured by something
beyond the capricious human world had better join an old-fashioned religion. If
you set aside any view of humankind that is borrowed from monotheism, you have
to deal with human beings as you find them, with their perpetually warring
values.
This isn’t the relativism celebrated by
postmodernists, which holds that human values are merely cultural
constructions. Humans are like other animals in having a definite nature, which
shapes their experiences whether they like it or not. No one benefits from
being tortured or persecuted on account of their religion or sexuality. Being
chronically poor is rarely, if ever, a positive experience. Being at risk of
violent death is bad for human beings whatever their culture. Such truisms
could be multiplied. Universal human values can be understood as something like
moral facts, marking out goods and evils that are generically human. Using
these universal values, it may be possible to define a minimum standard of
civilised life that every society should meet; but this minimum won’t be the
liberal values of the present time turned into universal principles.
Universal values don’t add up to a
universal morality. Such values are very often conflicting, and different
societies resolve these conflicts in divergent ways. The Ottoman empire, during
some of its history, was a haven of toleration for religious communities who
were persecuted in Europe; but this pluralism did not extend to enabling
individuals to move from one community to another, or to form new communities
of choice, as would be required by a liberal ideal of personal autonomy. The
Hapsburg empire was based on rejecting the liberal principle of national
self-determination; but – possibly for that very reason – it was more
protective of minorities than most of the states that succeeded it. Protecting
universal values without honouring what are now seen as core liberal ideals,
these archaic imperial regimes were more civilised than a great many states
that exist today.
For many, regimes of this kind are
imperfect examples of what all human beings secretly want – a world in which no
one is unfree. The conviction that tyranny and persecution are aberrations in
human affairs is at the heart of the liberal philosophy that prevails today.
But this conviction is supported by faith more than evidence. Throughout
history there have been large numbers who have been happy to relinquish their
freedom as long as those they hate – gay people, Jews, immigrants and other
minorities, for example – are deprived of freedom as well. Many have been ready
to support tyranny and oppression. Billions of human beings have been hostile
to liberal values, and there is no reason for thinking matters will be any
different in future.
An older generation of liberal thinkers
accepted this fact. As the late Stuart Hampshire put it:
“It is not only possible, but, on present
evidence, probable that most conceptions of the good, and most ways of life,
which are typical of commercial, liberal, industrialised societies will often
seem altogether hateful to substantial minorities within these societies and
even more hateful to most of the populations within traditional societies … As
a liberal by philosophical conviction, I think I ought to expect to be hated,
and to be found superficial and contemptible, by a large part of mankind.”
Considering the alternatives that are on
offer, liberal societies are well worth defending. But there is no reason for
thinking these societies are the beginning of a species-wide secular
civilisation of the kind of which evangelical atheists dream.
In ancient Greece and Rome, religion was
not separate from the rest of human activity. Christianity was less tolerant
than these pagan societies, but without it the secular societies of modern
times would hardly have been possible. By adopting the distinction between what
is owed to Caesar and what to God, Paul and Augustine – who turned the teaching
of Jesus into a universal creed – opened the way for societies in which
religion was no longer coextensive with life. Secular regimes come in many
shapes, some liberal, others tyrannical. Some aim for a separation of church
and state as in the US and France, while others – such as the Ataturkist regime
that until recently ruled in Turkey – assert state control over religion.
Whatever its form, a secular state is no guarantee of a secular culture.
Britain has an established church, but despite that fact – or more likely
because of it – religion has a smaller role in politics than in America and is
less publicly divisive than it is in France.
. . . . Evangelical atheists at the present
time are missionaries for their own values. If an earlier generation promoted
the racial prejudices of their time as scientific truths, ours aims to give the
illusions of contemporary liberalism a similar basis in science. It’s possible
to envision different varieties of atheism developing – atheisms more like
those of Freud, which didn’t replace God with a flattering image of humanity.
But atheisms of this kind are unlikely to be popular. More than anything else,
our unbelievers seek relief from the panic that grips them when they realise
their values are rejected by much of humankind. What today’s freethinkers want
is freedom from doubt, and the prevailing version of atheism is well suited to
give it to them.
You may find the full article here:
What Scares the New Atheists
You may find the full article here:
What Scares the New Atheists
Saturday, 14 March 2015
The Litany of Repentance
An Advent Litany of Repentance
"At the setting of the sun also, and at the ending of the day, we must of necessity pray. For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, it is for his return that we are asking for when we pray and ask that the sun might return to us and it is the return of Christ which shall give us the grace of the light that never cease for when without light, who has light in his heart Or when is one without the sun and the day, when one’s Sun and Day is Christ?
-- Saint Cyprian of Carthage --
Penitential Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143
Note this Litany gives the option of reciting select Latin phrases, derived from the oldest Litany of all, the Litany of the Saints.
Reader: IN PEACE let us pray to the Lord.
Kyrie, eleison. Kyrie, eleison.
Reader: FOR the peace from on high and for the salvation of our souls,
Reader: PROTECT us, save us, have mercy on us, and preserve us, O Lord, according to Thy grace.
Pater de caelis, Deus, miserere nobis.
Reader: O HOLY, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons
and one God
Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, miserere nobis.
Reader: O EMMANUEL, Jesus, Saviour, Redeemer of the world:
Christe, audi nos Christe, audi nos.
Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus, miserere nobis.
Reader: FROM all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting condemnation.
Reader: FROM all uncleanness in thought, word, and deed; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Spiritus Sancte, Deus, miserere nobis.
Reader: FROM blindness of heart; from pride, vain-glory and hypocrisy; from idolatry, avarice and envy, from lying, mocking & bullying.
Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FROM domestic, spousal and all forms of child neglect
and abuse.
Reader: FROM all coercion, slavery, and cruelty; from malice, hatred, violence, and all desires and ambitions of the flesh.
Sancta Dei Genetor, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FROM all exploitation of Thy Creation, Its Oceans and its Land, All plant life, the air and water, and cruelty to animals,
Reader: WE sinners do beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord God: and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universal in the right way.
Reader: FOR our parish churches, and for those who enter them with faith, reverence and the fear of God, let us pray to the Lord.
Sancta Virgo virginum, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR His Holiness the Pope who sits on Peter's Chair, give Thine own sovereign Light and Leading, inspiring his intentions, choices and decisions, Let us pray to the Lord.
Reader: FOR the Patriarchs of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: All Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Pour out Thy grace upon them giving them true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and show it accordingly, Let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Michael, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR All Theologians, Teachers and Catechists, granting them Thy Spirit's gifts of knowledge, understanding and utterance. And for all lay Ministers, and pastoral visitors, to send forth labourers into thy harvest, to bless and help all Missionaries and the witnesses of the New Evangelization, Let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Gabriel, ora pro nobis.
Readers: TO BLESS and call forth servants and witnesses to the Consecrated Life; for all Oratories, Abbeys, Monasteries, Friaries and Convents; for all Monks, Nuns, Hermits, Brothers and Sisters, the Quality and Reality of the Contemplative Life, and their teaching of the same, to the edification of Thy Church and the enlightening of the world, Let us pray to the Lord.
Reader: FOR the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, The Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, The Deanery of St John the Baptist, the Ordinariate of the Southern Cross and for the growth and expansion of their pathway to unity, their doctrinal purity and orthodoxy, their holiness of life and witness, Let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Raphael, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR all and every Family; for all Mothers and Fathers, for Holy Matrimony, that we may witness faithfully to the Teaching of the Lord and the Tradition of the Apostles, let us pray to the Lord.
Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli, orates pro nobis.
Reader: O LORD Deliver Thy Church from all sedition, conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandment,
Reader: BY THINE Agony and bloody Sweat; by thy Holy Cross and Passion; by thy Wounds and precious Death and by thy glorious Resurrection.
Reader: FOR an angel of peace, a faithful guide and guardian of our souls and bodies, let us Pray to the Lord.
Sancte Ioannes Baptista, ora pro nobis.
Reader: O GOD, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that Thou didst in their days, and in old time before them.
Reader: FROM our enemies defend us, O Christ;
Sancte Ioseph, ora pro nobis.
Reader: PITIFULLY behold the sorrows of our hearts;
Reader: FAVOURABLY with mercy hear our prayers;
Sancte Petre,ora pro nobis.
Reader: BOTH now and ever vouchsafe to hear us, O Christ;
Sancte Paule, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William and all the Royal Family, to keep and strengthen them in the true worshipping of Thee, in holiness of life, and in devotion to their people.
Reader: FOR the Governor General and Prime Minister of Canada; for the Premiers of the Provinces; for the Commonwealth; for Legislators, and all our civil authorities; for the Armed Forces, reserves and for our veterans; let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Ioannes, ora pro nobis.
Reader: WE humbly beseech Thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and, for the glory of Thy Name, turn from us all those evils that we most justly have deserved; and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in Thy mercy, and evermore serve Thee in holiness and pureness of living, to Thy honour and glory; through our Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sancte Matthaee, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR Repentance in the Nations, Repentance in Canada and the Commonwealth, for Repentance in Great Britain, for Repentance in the United States and all states in the Americas.
Omnes sancti martyres, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR the peace, safety and Blessing of your Ancient & Hebrew
Sancte Ambrosi, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR the crisis of leadership in our countries, for the Light
and wisdom we need for the choosing for election
candidates; for contrition and repentance, and for
soberness of mind and heart, to elect candidates who
can turn the present tide, so we can end abortion,
restore respect of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony as
consecrating a man and woman to the betterment of our
nation and the world and the healing of sexual dysphoria.
Reader: O LORD, deal not with us according to our sins;
Reader: WE humbly beseech Thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and, for the glory of thy Name, turn from us all those evils that we most justly have deserved; and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in Thy mercy, and evermore serve Thee in holiness and pureness of living, to Thy honour and glory; through our Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
People: GRANT it, O Lord. Have mercy; Lord have mercy.
Reader: FOR our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Egypt and all parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Sancte Martine , ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR all those brothers & sisters in the Armed Forces, arrayed against terrorists.
Reader: FOR our Intelligence workers and all the Police services,
Omnes sancti Doctores, ora pro nobis.
Reader: O GOD, merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful: Mercifully assist our prayers that we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us; and graciously hear us, that those evils, which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, be brought to nought; and by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed; that we thy servants, being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sancte Antoni, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR youth, for the elderly, the disabled and infirm, all who help them and their families, that the Holy Spirit may protect and strengthen their faith, let us pray to the Lord.
Reader: FOR this city, for every city and country, and for the faithful who live in them, let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Benedicte, ora pro nobis.
Reader: THAT the Lord would protect us, Preventing nuclear
war, and from Natural Disaster, we pray to the Lord.
Sancte Dominice, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR the decisive and continual consecration of Russia
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Mother and
Holy Queen,
Reader: THAT we may spend the rest of our life in peace and
repentance, let us pray to the Lord.
Sancte Francisce, ora pro nobis.
Reader: AMONG our Countrymen forgive our Enemies and
turn their hearts;
Reader: FOR favourable weather, an abundance of the fruits of
the earth and temperate seasons, let us pray to the Lord.
Reader: FOR travellers by sea, land and air, for the sick, the
suffering, the captives and for their safety and
salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
Sancta Maria Magdalena, ora pro nobis.
Reader: FOR our deliverance from all tribulation, wrath,
danger and necessity, let us pray to the Lord.
Reader: FOR a Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of
our life, and for a good account before the fearsome
judgment seat of Christ, let us pray to the Lord.
Sancta Catharina, ora pro nobis.
Reader: LET us be Attentive to the Word of God:
SURGE, ILLUMINARE. Isaiah 60. 1.
"ARISE, shine, for thy light is come, / and the
People: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Ghost.
Reader: O LORD, Lover of us all, make our prayer ascend to Thee like incense and accept it as a sweet fragrance. Grant that we may spend the present evening and the coming night in peace; clothe us with the armor of light; grant that the sleep given us will refresh our fatigue may be free from all illusions of the Devil. Enlightened by meditation on Thy commands, may we rise with gladdened soul to give glory to Thy goodness, offering prayers and supplications to Thy compassion for our sins and those of all Thy people. Visit us with mercy through the intercession of the holy Theotokos. For Thou, O God, art gracious and love mankind.
Reader: LORD our God Who bowed the heavens and came down for the salvation of the human race. Look upon Thy servants and upon Thine inheritance, for we bow our heads and bend our necks to Thee, the awesome Judge and Lover of mankind. We do not expect human help but await Thy mercy and long for Thy salvation. Protect us at all times, this evening and tonight, from every enemy, from all the devil’s assaults, from vain thoughts and evil imaginings.
Reader: HELP us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us, O God,
by Thy grace.
Reader: REMEMBERING our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos, the ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.
Reader: MAY Christ our true God, risen from the dead, have
mercy on us and save us. Yea may we worship Jesu
Christ always with awe and love; praising, singing, and
glorifying Thine inexpressible goodness.
ALL MERCIFUL MASTER, Lord Jesus Christ our God, make our prayer acceptable through the prayers of our all-pure Lady, the Theotokos, the ever-virgin Mary; through the power of Thy precious and life-creating Cross; through the protection of the honourable, heavenly, and angelic powers; through the prayers of the honourable and glorious Prophet, the Forerunner and Baptist, John; of the holy, glorious, and illustrious Apostles; of our holy fathers, the great hierarchs and Universal Teachers, through the Holy Catholic intercession of St Peter the Rock, the Enlightener of the gentiles, St Paul, the Holy Orthodox Prayers of St John the Divine Theologian, St Cyprian the Lover of the Catholic Church, St Basil the Righteous Founder of Hospitals and Monasteries, of our holy father Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia; of the holy equals, the apostles and teachers of the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius; of the prayers of the Servant of servants St Gregory the Dialogist, the Pope of Rome and Good Shepherd of the British, the Wonderworker and Equal to the Apostles St Patrick, the mighty Converter of the Celts, Columba, the Teacher of the Way St Dunstan, the Chronicler St Bede, and the righteous King, St Edward the Confessor, the Penitent of Saint Thomas a Becket, the Good Scholar St Anselm, and the Teacher of Teachers Thomas Aquinas, the Evangelist St Dominic and the Heart of hearts St Francis, the Mighty Thunderings of St Boniface and through the prayers of the holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna and of all the Saints for Christ is good and is the Lover of all mankind.
MAY GOD, THE HOLY TRINITY bless us now in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
People: Amen and Amen.
St Maximos the confessor, ora Pro Nobis,
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.
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