Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom

Charles de Foucauld was born into an aristocratic family in France and lost his faith at a young age. In his twenties he had a powerful religious experience and from then on he dedicated his life to God. He lived among the people of the Sahara, and died at the hand of an assassin during an uprising against the French. His words echo those of Jesus at his crucifixion, as recorded in Luke 24:46.

Father, I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you do I thank you.

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,

as in all your creatures,

I ask no more than this, my Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;

I offer it to you, O Lord,

with all the love of my heart,

for I love you, my God, and so need to give myself,

to surrender myself into your hands,

without reserve and with total confidence,

for you are my Father.

Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

Accept our sacrifice

Thomas Cranmer came to prominence at the time when Henry VIII was seeking the annulment of his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, to enable him to marry Anne Boleyn. Thomas was later appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry both respected and protected him. He was the main compiler of the first Book of Common Prayer (1549 and 1552), from which this prayer below is taken. Cranmer was involved in church reform under Edward VI but under the Catholic Mary Tudor he was burnt at the stake. This was ordered despite the fact that, under extreme pressure, he had signed a document recanting his Protestantism. He was expected to do this again publicly at his execution but instead he reaffirmed his Protestant convictions and at the stake he held his right hand (with which he had signed the recantation) in the flames. His martyr’s death, following those of Latimer and Ridley, did much to win people to Protestantism.

O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy humble servants

entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our

sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching

thee to grant, that by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus

Christ, and through faith in his blood, we and all thy whole

Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits

of his passion. And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord,

ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and

lively sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that all we,

who are partakers of this holy Communion, may be fulfilled with

thy grace and heavenly benediction. And although we be

unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any

sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty

and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our

offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom, and with

whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory be

unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. Amen.

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556)

All manner of thing shall be well

Julian of Norwich was one of the great English mystics. Little is known about her life except her writings. She is called Julian of Norwich simply because she lived in a cell adjoining the Benedictine church of St Julian in Conisford, Norwich. Having narrowly survived death from illness at the age of 30 (purportedly through prayer) she fell seriously ill once more in 1373 and experienced a series of 16 revelatory visions, mostly concerning the passion of Christ. After her recovery she meditated on these visions and went on to record her thoughts.

And thus, in my folly, afore this time often I wondered why,

by the great foreseeing wisdom of God, the beginning of sin was

not stopped; for then, I, all should have been well. ... But Jesus,

who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me,

answered by this word and said, Sin is unavoidable, but all shall

be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be

well.

For if we never fell, we should not know how feeble and how

wretched we are of our self, and also we should not fully know

that marvellous love of our Maker.

The fullness of Joy is to behold God in everything.

God is all that is good, in my sight, and the goodness that