Thursday, June 6, 2013

Prayer for the Muslims, Part 2


Happily, it is not only the Anglican liturgical tradition that gives us beautiful prayers for the conversion of our enemies. Consider these Mass propers approved by Pope Paul VI for the Novus Ordo Missae:


Introit: Look upon the covenant and let the poor and needy give praise unto thy Name. Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause, and forget not the voice of them that seek thee.

Collect: O God, who in thy inscrutable providence desireth to bind together thy Church by the sufferings of thy Son; Grant to the faithful assaulted daily by persecution for thy Name’s sake, the spirit of long-suffering and charity, that they may be found witnesses, both faithful and true, of thy promises, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Super Oblata: Receive, we beseech thee, O Lord, our humble prayers and victims, and grant that they that serve thee faithfully, yet undergo the daily persecutions of men, may rejoice that they are bound together by the sacrifice of thy Son, and let them know and feel that their names are written in the Book of Life, with all thine elect in the heavens, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Communion Anthem: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake, saith the Lord. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.

Post-Communion: By the might of this Sacrament strengthen the faithful in thy truth, O Lord, and grant to them hedged in on every side by tribulation, that carrying the Cross in the footsteps of thy Son, they may ever wax valiant and boast in the name of Christian, even in the midst of their persecutors, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Missale Romanum 1970, Votive Mass 15, Pro Christianis Persecutione Vexatis)

Of course, the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite also directs us towards the same end:


Let us pray also for the heathen that Almighty God remove the iniquity from their hearts, that they abandon their idols and turn unto the living and true God, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and God.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who desirest not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live, mercifully receive our prayer and free the heathen from the worship of idols and add them to thy holy Church, to the praise and glory of thy Name, through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

(From Feria VI in Passione Domini)

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, in whose hand are the powers of all rulers and the judgments of all kingdoms, regard the help of Christendom, that the heathen which trust only in their brutality may be trampled out by the might of thy right hand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Secret: O Lord, gaze upon the sacrifice which we offer unto thee and deign to deliver all them that fight for thee from the wickedness of the heathen and keep them in the safety of thy tender care, through our Lord Jesus Christ...Amen.

Post-Communion: O God our defender, look and save all them that fight for thee from the menace of the heathen, that every trial and tribulation having been done away, they may serve thee with free minds, through our Lord Jesus Christ...Amen.

(From the votive Mass Pro Ecclesiae Defensione)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why isn't this titled Prayers for the Muslims
and all Heathens ?