A Prayer for Mercy
A prayer from the end of the Litany, in sixteenth-century Book of Common Prayer.
This prayer came at the close of the Litany in the Book of Common Prayer, the service book of the Church of England following the Reformation in the sixteenth century.
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. Amen.