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.
A hymn to the Virgin Mary, sung at the communion service of the Eastern churches.
This hymn is attributed to St John Damascene, a contemporary of St Bede. It is packed with Biblical allusions, all centred on the Christian belief that God entered into the womb of the virgin Mary and there became a human child.
A prayer recited frequently during Great Lent in the Greek and Russian churches.
The Prayer of St Ephraim is recited with great frequency during the forty days of Lent, prior to Easter, in the Greek and Russian tradition, accompanied by deep prostrations. The translation below follows the Greek text, which differs very slightly from the Russian.
A short prayer from the Sarum Missal, for the anniversary of the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This prayer was appointed in the Sarum Missal, the service book of the English Church in the Middle Ages, for the Feast of the Assumption, which remembers the day on which the Virgin Mary died. The Eastern churches call this day the Dormition or Falling-Asleep of Mary. Tradition says that Mary died a natural death, surrounded by the Apostles, but three days later her body was nowhere to be found.
A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
The Virgin Mary was among the women who came to Christ’s tomb expecting to care for his dead body, only to find the grave empty and an angel waiting for them. This hymn, sung in the weeks after Easter, imagines how the angel told the news of Christ’s resurrection to his mother.
A short hymn from the later 11th century, in praise of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
This short hymn comes from a collection of hymns collected by English monks just after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and preserved at Durham Cathedral. Many of the hymns are well-known Latin hymns of the wider Roman Church, helpfully annotated with Old English vocabulary. Nestling among them is this affectionate little hymn dedicated to St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (?635-687), who lies buried in the Cathedral there.
A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for use at morning and evening.
Although much of the Book of Common Prayer was simply a translation of the mediaeval Latin service books, this prayer, from the start of Morning and Evening Prayer, was newly added in 1552. Commentators are quick to observe that it was no less than St Basil the Great (330-379) who declared that all prayer should begin with some acknowledgement of our shortcomings.