Anglican Patrimony; and Psalm 86(87) — II

Anglican Patrimony – what is it?  Pope Benedict defines it thus:

...ita ut intra Catholicam Ecclesiam vitales serventur spiritales, liturgicae pastoralesque Communionis Anglicanae traditiones, ad instar magni pretii doni, ad sodalium fidem alendam ac participandam. 

..the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion [brought] within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

— Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum cœtibus, III. (& cf. VI. §5, which explicitly refers to all this as Anglicano patrimonio, "Anglican patrimony"; the same expression occurs in the Complementary Norms, Article 10 §2.)

Of course, these liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions must ipso facto be orthodox – hence, liturgies to be used must "have been approved by the Holy See" (A.C., III), and all this patrimony must be subject to the clear statement that "The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate" (A.C., I §5).  A "purification" is called for: no Erastianism, no Calvinism, no Zwinglianism; no liberalism nor modernism!  But "yes" to all that is godly, catholic and conformable to the doctrines of the universal Church.

What relevance has the Patrimony of Anglicanism to the Psalms and to prayer?  Firstly, the Anglican daily Offices, wherein traditionally the whole Psalter is sung through, in rich Anglican chant, once every month; secondly, the prayers and devotions and preachings of Anglican divines founded upon the Psalms.

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In the more particular of the present case, following upon my brief notes relative to Psalm 86, or 87 as the Hebrews and Anglicans number it, I've turned up a prayer by Jeremy Taylor, from his The Psalter of David: with Titles and Collects, according to the Matter of Each Psalm (Works, Volume XV, p.156):

PSALM LXXXVII.

A Contemplation of the Excellencies of Sion, or the celestial Jerusalem.

O Lord God, who dwellest in Sion, and delightest to have thy habitation in the hearts of men: thou hast built the church as a city upon a hill, and laid the foundation of it upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone: make us to be a spiritual building fit for thy habitation, and a residence for thy Holy Spirit, grounding us in faith, building us up in hope, and perfecting us in charity; that we, being joined in the communion of saints, in the union of the holy catholic church militant on earth, may all partake of the blessings of thy church trinmphant in the city of thee our God, in the celestial Jerusalem, where thou livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.

While unfortunately Taylor was rather bigoted against the Holy Church of Rome, this and many of his devotions (but for their oft wearisome sesquipedalian length) are in themselves pious and uncontroversial; and ought be welcomed home.

Birth-day Prayer

Jeremy Taylor provides this apt prayer to mark my day of birth; to which is subjoined a further:

A Prayer to be said upon our Birth-day, or Day of Baptism.

O blessed and eternal God, I give thee praise and glory for thy great mercy to me in causing me to be born of Christian parents.  Thou didst not allot to me a portion with misbelievers and heathen that have not known thee. Thou didst not suffer me to be strangled at the gate of the womb, but thy hand sustained and brought me to the light of the world, and the illumination of baptism, with thy grace preventing my election, and by an artificial necessity and holy prevention engaging me to the profession and practices of Christianity. Lord, since that, I have broken the promises made in my behalf, and which I confirmed by my after-act; I went back from them by an evil life; and yet thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance; and didst not cut me off in the beginning of my days, and the progress of my sins. O dearest God, pardon the errors and ignorances, the vices and vanities, of my youth, and the faults of my more forward years, and let me never more stain the whiteness of my baptismal robe; and now that by thy grace I still persist in the purpose of obedience, and do give up my name to Christ, and glory to be a disciple of thy institution, and a servant of Jesus, let me never fail of thy grace; let no root or bitterness spring up and disorder my purposes, nor defile my spirit. O let my years be so many degrees of nearer approach to thee; and forsake me not, O God, in my old age, when I am grey-headed; and when my strength faileth me, be thou my strength and my guide unto death; that I may reckon my years, and apply my heart unto wisdom; and at last, after the spending a holy and a blessed life, I may be brought unto a glorious eternity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then may be added this thanksgiving:

O holy and almighty God, Father of mercies, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of thy love and eternal mercies, I adore and praise and glorify thy infinite and unspeakable love and wisdom, who hast sent thy Son from the bosom of felicities to take upon him our nature and our misery and our guilt, and hast made the Son of God to become the Son of man, that we might become the Sons of God, and partakers of the Divine nature; since thou hast so exalted human nature, be pleased also to sanctify my person, that by a conformity to the humility and laws, and sufferings of my dearest Saviour, I may be united to his Spirit, and be made all one with the most holy Jesus. Amen.

O holy and eternal Jesus, who didst pity mankind lying in his blood, and sin, and misery, and didst choose our sadnesses and sorrows that thou mightest make us to partake of thy felicities; let thine eyes pity me, thy hands support me, thy holy feet tread down all the difficulties in my way to heaven; let me dwell in thy heart, be instructed with thy wisdom, moved by thy affections, choose with thy will, and be clothed with thy righteousness; that, in the day of judgment, I may be found having on thy garments, sealed with thy impression; and that bearing upon every faculty and member the character of my elder brother, I may not be cast out with strangers and unbelievers. Amen.

O holy and ever-blessed Spirit, who didst overshadow the holy Virgin-mother of our Lord, and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner, be pleased to overshadow my soul, and enlighten my spirit, that I may conceive the holy Jesus in my heart, and may bear him in my mind, and may grow up to the fulness of the stature of Christ, to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Amen.

To God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the eternal Son that was incarnate and born of a virgin, to the Spirit of the Father and the Son be all honour and glory, worship and adoration, now and for ever. Amen.

A Converted Prayer

The forerunner of Anglicanorum cœtibus, and its upcoming parallel document specifically for the T.A.C., was the Pastoral Provision of 1980. To obtain quick approval of some elements of Anglican liturgy for the incoming American groups back then, selections from the 1979 U.S. B.C.P. were hastily assembled, and somehow got past the elder Marini et al. Much has changed since then, and we may hope for something more like the English Missal, with the nice bits of the various older and more classical B.C.P.'s inserted therein, to be made available as the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite.

In the meanwhile, here is one of these converted (I was going to say rebaptized) prayers now declared a part of official Catholic worship by reason of its placement at the end of the Anglicna Use Burial Service, Rite I - it is an abbreviation of a prayer of about twice the length by Jeremy Taylor, seventeenth century Anglican Divine, in his Holy Dying - which I think expresses well the urgency of all moves toward full corporate unity:

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, we beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of life; and let thy Holy Spirit lead us “in holiness and righteousness all our days” (St Luke i, 75); that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope; in favour with thee our God; and in perfect charity with the world. All which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.