Comfortable Words
The King James Bible of 1611, a model of straightforward English made for reading aloud.
The King James Bible of 1611, a model of straightforward English made for reading aloud.
Two short prayers by the twelfth-century Durham monk, one to the Virgin Mary and another to St Nicholas.
Reginald of Durham (?-?1190) tells us that the Virgin Mary appeared to St Godric and made him learn a prayer so that he could say it ‘whenever he was fearful of being overcome by pain, sorrow, or temptation.’ She promised her immediate help. The second stanza is found in ‘Flowers of History’ by Roger of Wendover (?-1236).
A morning hymn attributed to the fifth-century Irish bishop, St Patrick.
This morning hymn is attributed to St Patrick, the fifth-century priest (possibly born in Cumbria) who swore a vow to bring Christianity to Ireland, where he had been enslaved as a child. It is described as a ‘lorica’, a breastplate, presumably in reference to the breastplate of righteousness of which St Paul wrote to the Ephesians.
The Creed is a tissue of Biblical quotations first compiled in 325, and recited at every communion service to this day.
In 325, bishops assembled at Nicaea, near Constantinople, and compiled a declaration of faith. It was enlarged at Constantinople in 381, and fifty years later the world’s bishops gathered at Ephesus and agreed never to change one word of it. It is recited to this day at every service of holy communion, and was consequently known to the Anglo-Saxons as ‘the Mass Creed’.
A list of fundamental rules for God’s covenant people to keep, delivered to Moses on Sinai.
The Ten Commandments were given to Israel shortly after their escape from slavery in Egypt, probably in the thirteenth-century BC. The following translation comes from the Catechism in the English Book of Common Prayer (1549), intended for young children.
A hymn of praise and thanksgiving, recalling the birth of Jesus Christ, and the promise of eternal life.
This hymn, often known by its Latin title of ‘Te Deum’, is attributed to St Nicetas (?335-414), bishop of Remesiana, now Bela Palanka in the Pirot District of Serbia. Today it forms part of the litany. The translation given here comes from the English Book of Common Prayer (1662).
A short prayer to Mary, blended from the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel and the greeting of her cousin Elizabeth.
This famous acclamation joins the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel when he announced to Mary the conception of her child Jesus, to the greeting of her cousin Elizabeth when the two women, now both pregnant, subsequently met. In both East and West today, additional lines are usually added; in the service books of the English Church of the Middle Ages, these two lines were enough.