Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom

the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

James 1:5–6, NRSV

At Christmas

Although he came from a moderately well-off family, Charles Dickens worked in a factory from the age of 12 and the dreadful conditions had an impact on him that shaped his social conscience; the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his writing. One of his best known novels is A Christmas Carol, from which this extract is taken.

For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better

than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.

Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

At the beginning of the day

Taken from the Book of Common Prayer, this prayer seeks the protection of God for the day ahead. It is used in the shorter form of the service of Morning Prayer.

O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God,

who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend

us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we

fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all

our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous

in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer

At your side

The book of Proverbs contains many two-line pieces of wisdom. Some of these have become everyday sayings or proverbs that are still in use today. This reminds us that as friends or as family members we should be faithful, loving and supportive.

A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share

adversity.

Proverbs 17:17, NRSV

Be of good cheer

The nineteenth-century preacher Robert Murray McCheyne died young but had made a significant impact in his seven years of ministry in Scotland. Here he writes to his church about suffering.

God has called you to suffer, and you go, like Abraham, not

knowing whither you go ... Still, be of good cheer, suffer with

Christ! God marks your every step ... He that loves you with an

infinite, unchanging love, is leading you by his Spirit and

providence. He knows every stone, every thorn in your path.

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813–1843)

Be prepared for trials

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar. He founded a monastery in Japan during the 1930s and during the Second World War he sheltered Polish refugees, many of them Jewish. He was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Auschwitz. In July 1941, ten men from his barracks were selected to be starved to death and Maximilian volunteered to take the place of one of them. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, Kolbe and three others were still alive and he was finally murdered with an injection of carbolic acid. He is one of ten twentieth-century martyrs depicted above the Great Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

You must be prepared for periods of darkness, anxiety,

doubts, fears, of temptations that are sometimes very, very

insistent, of sufferings of the body and, what is a hundred times

more painful, of the soul. For if there were nothing to bear, for

what would you go to heaven? If there were no trials, there

would be no struggle. Without a struggle, victory would be

impossible, and without victory, there is no crown, no reward ...

So be prepared from now on for everything.

Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941)

Beauty

Clement, a Greek philosopher, united the traditions of Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine. Origen was his pupil in Alexandria and went on to become a renowned theologian.

It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify,

but your soul, adorning it with good works. Although the body,

to be precise, should be made beautiful, though in a measured

way.

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215)

Being born again

Jesus taught his followers that being ‘born again’ was necessary for those who wanted to be part of God’s kingdom. When asked about how this could happen, his reply makes it clear that this new birth is a radical change brought about by the Spirit of God in the inner being.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the