Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom

Blessing and honour

Lancelot Andrewes was an English clergyman and scholar who served as Bishop of Chichester during the reign of James I. He oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible.

Blessing and honour, thanksgiving and praise

More than we can utter,

More than we can conceive,

Be unto you , O most holy and glorious Trinity,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

By all angels, all people, all creatures

For ever and ever. Amen and Amen.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626)

The blessings of home and children

The psalmist reminds us that we need to ensure that God is involved in all that we do, or what we do will be fruitless. He also proclaims the benefits of having children.

Unless the LORD builds the house,

those who build it labour in vain.

Unless the LORD guards the city,

the guard keeps watch in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives sleep to his beloved.

Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the sons of one’s youth.

Happy is the man who has

his quiver full of them.

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127, NRSV

Bound in this bundle of life

Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian, best known for trying to relate the Christian faith to the reality of twentieth-century politics. He contributed to modern thinking on the theory of the just war.

O God, who hast bound us together in this bundle of life,

give us grace to understand how our lives depend upon the

courage, the industry, the honesty and the integrity of our fellow-men;

that we may be mindful of their needs, grateful for their

faithfulness, and faithful in our responsibilities to them; through

Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)

The bright morning star

George Fox was born in seventeenth-century Puritan England and became the founder of the Quakers. Although sometimes viewed as a fiery public figure, his letters reveal him as a loving pastor calling people to a confident and full Christian life.

All dear Friends everywhere, who have no helper but the

Lord, who is your strength and your life, let your cries and

prayers be to him, who with his eternal power has kept your

heads above all waters and storms. Let none go out of their

habitations in the stormy time of the night, those whose

habitation is the Lord, the Seed, Christ Jesus.

In this Seed you will see the bright and morning Star appear

which will expel the night of darkness, by which morning Star

you will come to the everlasting Day which was before night was.

So, everyone feel this bright morning Star in your hearts,