03 March 2007

One of the most beautiful prayers...

...you will ever read. This is from the Petri 1531 Mass of the Swedish Church:

Verily it is meet, right, and blessed that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to Thee, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, for all Thy benefits, and especially for that one that Thou didst unto us, when we all by reason of sins were in so bad a case that nought but death and eternal damnation awaited us, and no creature in heaven or earth could help us, then Thou didst send forth Thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, who was of the same divine nature as Thyself, didst suffer Him to become a man for our sake, didst lay our sins upon Him and didst suffer Him to undergo death instead of our all dying eternally, and as He hath overcome death and risen again to life, and now dieth nevermore, so likewise shall all they who put their trust therein overcome sins and death and through Him attain everlasting life, and for our admonition that we should bear in mind and never forget such His benefit, in the night in which He was betrayed celebrated a Supper in which He took the bread in His holy hands, gave thanks to His heavenly Father, blessed it, brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said: Take ye and eat, this is My Body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise also He took the cup in His holy hands, gave thanks to His heavenly Father, blessed it and gave it to His disciples and said: Take and drink ye all of this, this is the cup of the new testament in My blood, which for you and for many is shed for the remission of sins; as oft as ye do this, do this in remembrance of me. (See Reed, pp. 115, 116)

This beautiful prayer in a greatly modified form appears in LSB, Divine Service 4, p. 208.

1 comment:

Susan said...

That part near the beginning sounds to me a lot like part of the Large Catechism on the Second Article.