Our Father which art in heaven, &c. Min. O Lord, save this woman thy servant; Answ. Who putteth her trust in thee. Min. Be thou to her a strong tower, Answ. From the face of her enemy. Min. Lord, hear our prayer. Answ. And let our cry come unto thee. Min. Let us pray. O Almighty God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou hast vouchsafed to deliver this woman from the great pain and peril of child-birth; Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that she, through thy help, may both faithfully live, and walk according to thy will, in this life present; and also may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Pater noster qui es in cœlis, sanctificetur, &c. Domine salvam fac ancillam tuam : Deus meus, sperantem in te. Esto ei, Domine, turris fortudinis, A facie inimici. Domine exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus ad te ve niat. Oremus. Deus, qui hanc famulam tuam de pariendi periculo liberasti, et eam in servitio tuo devotam esse fecisti: concede ut temporali cursu fideliter peracto, sub alis misericordiæ tuæ vitam perpetuam et quietem consequatur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen c. c Man. Sarisb. fol. 46. CHAPTER XI. A COMMINATION, AND PRAYERS FOR THE FIRST DAY OF LENT. THIS office is one of the last memorials we retain of that solemn public penitence which, during the primitive ages, occupied so conspicuous a place in the discipline of the Christian church. In the earliest ages, those who were guilty of grievous sins were solemnly reduced to the order of penitents: they came fasting, and clad in sack-cloth and ashes, on the occasion, and after the bishop had prayed over them, they were dismissed from the church. They then were admitted gradually to the classes of hearers, substrati, and consistentes; until at length, after long trial and exemplary conduct, they were again deemed worthy of full communion. This penitential discipline at length, from various causes, became extinct, both in the eastern and western churches: and, from the twelfth or thirteenth century, the solemn office for the first day of Lent was the only memorial of this ancient discipline in the west. It seems that at least from about the eighth century there was a solemn office for public penitents on the a See Bingham's Antiquities, book xviii. ch. 1 and 2. first day of Lent; but in after-ages this office was applied indiscriminately to all the people, who received ashes, and were prayed for by the bishop or presbyter. Thus the office lost its ancient character. The English churches have long used this office nearly as we do at present, as we find almost exactly the same appointed for the first day of Lent in the missals of Salisbury and York, and in the MS. sacramentary of Leofric, which was written for the English church about the ninth or tenth century. The peculiar office which the church of England has appointed for the first day of Lent, commences after the morning prayer and litany are concluded. In the ancient offices of Salisbury also we find that this office began after the prayers which were said at the sixth hour, or twelve o'clock in the day; and many of the western offices appointed the litany at the beginning of this service. The English office then proceeds with an address or sermon full of exhortations to penitence and conversion from sins, which is called a commination; and in the course of it the priest recites the curses of God against sin, to each of which the people, according to the custom of the old law, are invited to testify their assent. It has long been customary in the western churches for the bishop or presbyter to make a discourse or sermon on the subject of penitence at this part of the office, as we may see in the missals of Salisbury, b Martene de Antiq. Eccl. Rit. lib. i. c. 6, p. 3. See Bingham, book xviii. ch. 2, § 2. c Fer. iv in capite Jejunii post sextam imprimis fiat sermo ad populum si placuerit. d Martene de Antiq. Eccl. Rit. lib. i. c. 6, p. 86. 95. De Antiqua Eccl. Discipl. in Div. Officiis, c. 7, p. 140, &c. and in several western rituals mentioned by Martene. After this sermon or commination, the fiftyfirst psalm, anciently noted in the church as one of the penitential psalms, and especially called the psalm of confession, is appointed to be sung by the priest and clergy. The ancient sacramentary of the English church, written in the ninth or tenth century, alluded to above, directs the same psalm to be sung on the present occasion". It also concurs with the missals of York and Salisbury, and other western formularies, in prescribing the following parts of the office. Answ. That put their trust in thee. Min. Send unto them help from above. Answ. And evermore mightily defend them. Min. Help us, O God our Saviour. Answ. And for the glory of thy name deliver us; be merciful to us sinners, for thy name's sake. Min. O Lord, hear our prayer. Answ. And let our cry come unto thee. Deus meus, sperantes in te. Mitte eis, Domine, auxilium de sancto. Et de Syon tuere nos. Adjuva nos Deus salutaris noster. Et propter gloriam nominis tui, Domine, libera nos et propitius esto peccatis nostris propter nomen tuum. Domine, exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus ad te veniati. The following prayers are derived from formularies of great antiquity, being very like prayers not only used on this occasion in the missals of Salisbury and York, but found in the sacramentary above alluded to, and in the sacramentary of Gelasius, a. D. 494. |