Lancelot of Andrewes, with Thanksgiving

I admit my own ignorance, I have never known about this cleric and scholar until today. The Commemoration for Morning Prayer was for Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester. His feast day was the 25th of September.

Image from Educational Technology Clearinghouse http://etc.usf.edu/

[Andrewes] was on the committee of scholars that produced the King James Translation of the Bible, and probably contributed more to that work than any other single person. It is accordingly no surprise to find him not only a devout writer but a learned and eloquent one, a master of English prose, and learned in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and eighteen other languages. His sermons were popular in his own day, but are perhaps too academic for most modern readers. He prepared for his own use a manuscript notebook of Private Prayers, which was published after his death. The material was apparently intended, not to be read aloud, but to serve as a guide and stimulus to devout meditation.

What really struck me, however, was the devotional that Kiefer (from The Mission of St. Clare website) shared in the Commemoration. The portion of “Thanksgiving” resonated with me, particularly the expression of gratitude for “all who have stood me in good stead by their writings, their sermons, conversations, prayers, examples, rebukes, wrongs.” For all of you, I too give thanks to God.

THANKSGIVING
O my Lord, my Lord, I thank Thee
for that I am,
that I am alive,
that I am rational:
for nurture,
preservation,
governance:
for education,
citizenship,
religion:
for Thy gifts of grace,
nature,
estate:
for redemption,
regeneration,
instruction:
for calling,
recalling,
further calling manifold:
for forbearance,
longsuffering,
long longsuffering towards me,
many times,
many years,
until now:
for all good offices I have received,
good speed I have gotten:
for any good thing done:
for the use of things present,
thy promise
and my hope
touching the fruition of the good things to come:
for my parents honest and good,
teachers gentle,
benefactors always to be had in remembrance,
colleagues likeminded,
hearers attentive,
friends sincere,
retainers faithful:
for all who have stood me in good stead
by their writings,
their sermons,
conversations,
prayers,
examples,
rebukes,
wrongs:
for these things and all other,
which I wot of, which I wot not of,
open and secret,
things I remember, things I have forgotten withal,
things done to me after my will or yet against my will,
I confess to Thee and bless Thee and give thanks unto Thee,
and I will confess and bless and give thanks to Thee
all the days of my life.
What thanks can I render to God again
for all the benefits that He hath done unto me?
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
Thou are worthy, O Lord and our God, the Holy One,
to receive the glory and the honour and the power:
for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.

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