Deus Misereatur

{Feel free to use this in your congregational, family, and personal prayers-Mike} Adoration and Intercession:  Paul Miller reminds us in his book, “A Praying Life”, that the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father”, draws us to the encouraging conclusion that “[y]ou are the center of your heavenly Father’s affection. That is where you find rest for your soul” (34). That’s what our shorter catechism says, in a bit different way, “to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us” (Q and A 100). Let us now draw near. O our God and Father, who turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, and a fruitful land into a salty waste; and yet you also turn deserts into pools of water, parched land into springs of water; who, when your people are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil and sorrow, raises up the needy out of affliction, making your families like flocks, making the upright to s...

In Morning Prayer there are times when *what* to pray becomes problematic for me. I get too bound up in the multiple needs, worries, dramas, and crises of peoples’ lives, and world/national events. And so it is helpful at times to step back, with a little broader perspective, and pray a bit more generally. That’s why I have used this following prayer over the years with regularity. This is from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer , with the mild alterations I use. I have also included the 2 Scripture references that are clearly voiced in this prayer.  I hope it will be of use to you. A Collect or Prayer for all Conditions of Men. O GOD , the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech you for all sorts and conditions of men: that you would be pleased to make your ways known unto them, your salvation unto all nations (Psalm 67.1). More especially, we pray for the good estate of the catholic {universal} Church; that she may be so guided and governed by your good Spirit a...