Greek is keeping me wicked busy.
I stumbled across this prayer from Johann Arndt, the great lover of God whose influence can be felt in Bach cantatas and the writings of the pietists (although he predates the movement by a hundred years.)
O THOU loving- and tender Father in
heaven, I confess before Thee, in deep
sorrow, how hard and unsympathising
is my heart ; how often I have sinned against
my neighbour by want of compassion and tenderness ;
how often I have felt no true Christian
pity for his trials and sorrows, have neglected to
comfort, help, and visit him, and thus have stood
apart in selfish isolation from my own flesh and
blood. Herein I have not acted like a child of
God, for I have not been merciful as our
Heavenly Father is merciful ; I have not remembered
Christ’s words of blessing, ‘ Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ;’
nor that sentence of the last Day, ‘ Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire ; for I was an
hungred and ye gave me no food, naked and ye
clothed me not.’
O Father, forgive this heavy sin, and lay it
not to my charge. Avert from me the punishment
I have justly merited ; and let the tender
compassion of Thy Son make amends for my
hardness and coldness. Give me too a compassionate
heart, quickly moved to grieve for the
woes of others and to active pity for them, even
as our Lord Jesus Christ beheld our poverty and
hasted to help us. Give me grace ever to alleviate
the crosses and difficulties of those around me,
and never to add to them ; teach me to be a consoler
in sorrow, to take thought for the stranger,
the widow, and the orphan ; let my charity show
itself not in words only but in deed and truth.
Teach me to judge, as Thou dost, with forbearance,
with much pity and indulgence ; help me
to avoid all unloving judgment of others, and to
be anxious to moderate the sternness of strict justice
by the tenderness of sympathy. For mercy
rejoiceth against judgment, and Thou, O God,
lovest mercy more than sacrifice. So let me put
on cordial pity, kindness, humility, and patience,
that I may gladly forgive, as Christ hath forgiven
me. Teach me fully to recognise Thy great
mercy towards me, who am so unworthy of all
Thou hast done for me from my mother’s womb ;
for Thy mercy sought me out when I lay
in sin ; it waiteth for me till I come to Thee ; it
embraces me when I come ; it follows me through
all the days of my life, and will at last receive
me into the life eternal. Amen.
J. Arndt, 1555-1626.
From the book Prayers from the collection of Baron Bunsen, London:
Longmans, Green, and CO., 1871.