A Prayer for All Needs by Clement of Rome
We beg you, Lord, to help and defend us.
Deliver the oppressed.
Pity the insignificant.
Raise the fallen.
Show yourself to the needy.
Heal the sick.
Bring back those of your people who have gone astray.
Feed the hungry.
Lift up the weak.
Take off the prisoners’ chains.
May every nation come to know that you alone are God,
that Jesus is your Child, that we are your people,
the sheep that you pasture.
Amen.
Prayer to God the Father — St Ambrose of Milan (337–397 AD)
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You,
a heart to delight in You,
to follow and to enjoy You,
for Christ’s sake.
Amen
A Prayer by Augustine link
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, That my thoughts may all be holy
.Act in me, O Holy Spirit, That my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, That I love but what is holy.Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit,
To defend all that is holy.Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, That I always may be holy.
Amen
The Nicene Creed
WE BELIEVE in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Benediction
The Lord give us peace in our going out and our coming in,
in our lying down and in our rising up, in our labor and in our leisure,
in our laughter and in our tears;
until we come to stand before him on that day to which there is no sunset and no dawn,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Ambrose, the great doctor (teacher) of the early church, was unusual for his time – he read silently rather than aloud. This from a man who introduced the western church to hymnody!
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(f.b.o. Lutherans and other liturgical types listening in) Oone of the five hymns (metered texts / poems) confirmed to Ambrosian authorship is “Veni redemptor gentium” (Come redeemer of the peoples). Numerous plainsong videos abound, but for us English speakers, there are two ‘modern’ arrangements in our hymnals. One Lutheran, the other Anglican. Both tunes are by 16th C. German composer Michael Praetorius writing 1200 years after Ambrose’s birth to heaven, and 500 years before our present moment in time.
Lutheran – NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND (Savior of the nations, come – Praetorius own four-part chorale)
https://youtu.be/2MRzf2QiCqE
Anglican – PUER NOBIS NASCITUR (Come thou redeemer of the earth – tune PUER NOBIS by Praetorius, arr. David Willcocks)
https://youtu.be/rkdwUZpo4ms
Texts, translations, and commentary
https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/NonEnglish/veni_redemptor_gentium.htm
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I left out for our Lutheran audience that “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” was translated by the GOAL (Greatest of all Lutherans), Martin Luther, which he also adapted to a plainchant, this latter improved by Praetorius (above).
And the next-GOAL (and oft-reckoned master of all music of all time and places), Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote not one, but two cantatas and a couple chorale preludes on the hymn and the tune.