The sun is out and summer is finally upon us. We’re eating ice cream every day. We’ve put up our tent in the garden, testing it out before our camping trip. And I’ve set aside an ambitiously large pile of Christian books I’d like to read on holiday, together with a new notebook and some special pens for my personal devotion times. I know I won’t get through them all. But I pray and hope at least one of the books will impact me as much as one did last year.
Last summer, just as we were heading away to Cornwall, someone offered me a 1903 version of The Preces Privatae of Lancelot Andrewes. Originally written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin by the former Bishop of Winchester at the end of the 16th Century, it wasn’t an obvious choice for a summer devotional! But once I had tuned into the Early Modern English and roman numerals, I discovered something incredibly rich and surprisingly relevant.
Compelling unfamiliarity
Leaning heavily on direct quotations from Scripture, The Preces Privatae is Andrewes’ private prayer book, which he wrote to structure and aide his own devotional times. In it, he simply and accessibly lays out different kinds of prayers to use across the seven days of the week. In many ways, it felt relevant and easy to use. But the most compelling element was the text’s unfamiliarity. For instance, I had never come across the prayers of the “Horologion” – the prayers of some of the earliest Christian believers.1 This mix of old prayers, and Andrewes’ own prayers drawn together through familiar Scriptures, was like listening to a favourite album played in a different order – just as wonderful, yet also surprising, attention capturing, and worthy of contemplation. With my brain in holiday mode, I was led to adopt phrases from Scripture to pray along with Abraham, David, and Jonah. Praying a patchwork of prayers lifted straight from the Bible was what I needed: “Lord say unto my soul – I am thy salvation” (Psalm 35:3), say unto me – My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Cor 12:9).2
As a result of this book, I found myself both sitting for longer on the ash heap of my sin and rejoicing in God’s holiness and goodness in fresh ways. My repentance was deeper and my delight in Jesus increased.
A reimagining
I used Andrewes’ prayers several times over and shared them with friends. But there remained a barrier – the impenetrability of the language. The grammatical and orthographical conventions of 16th Century English isn’t easy on our modern ears and minds. So, I began a modest, modern reworking, something akin to other books of prayer I have enjoyed like “Every Moment Holy” or “Be Thou My Vision.”3
What ended up being produced is not a modern English translation, nor is it a scholarly piece of work. It is a personal reimagining of a small section of a 400-year-old prayer book that has blessed me in my walk with the Lord. I hope and pray it might do the same for you.
Daily Bible reading
What will help with your daily Bible reading this summer? Many of us will be going into the summer months feeling a little dry. Maybe this devotional might help. It is packed full of the Scripture references used by Andrewes in the original, but in a modern form. Where I have written my own prayers, they flow out of the composite of Scriptures in the original prayer book. It may feel quite different to some of the Bible reading material commonly used today. However, I hope its uncommon form will help you engage with Scripture in a fresh way, like it has for me.
The shape of each day’s prayers moves you through different scriptural themes: God as creator, repentance, petition, faith, hope, and blessing. This shape echoes the seven days of creation, providing a rhythm in sync with our patterns of work and rest.
Every day, different Scriptures are drawn (including the 10 commandments, the beatitudes and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5), asking God to empower the removal of sin from our lives and the putting on of virtue. Andrewes is also unafraid to point us to the whole council of God, drawing on less well-known Scriptures from Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Leviticus.
Prayer
What will help you to pray this summer? If you’re struggling in prayer, as we all do sometimes, why not tag along with Lancelot Andrewes and let his prayers shape your own? The movement from praise to repentance to petition to hope has helped orient me to God amidst the busyness and mess of life. It has tethered my wandering mind and helped me to stay engaged in communion with my heavenly Father. What I have written will require you to slow down and ‘fill in the blanks,’ praying for the distinctive aspects of your own life of faith.
How to use it
I used Andrewes’ seven days of prayer over and over, sometimes as a standalone quiet time and sometimes in conjunction with reading longer passages of Scripture. You could try it out just for one week. But I’d recommend using it over a longer period, perhaps as a rekindling of prayer over the summer.
The devotionals are free to download and print here. As you practise prayer with Lancelot Andrewes, may Holy Scripture seep into your heart afresh and may the living Christ fill your gaze.
1 The Horologion or Book of Hours is an Eastern Orthodox Prayer book.
2 L. Andrewes, The Preces Privatae of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, trans. F. E. Brightman, London: Methuen & Co, 101.
3 Every Moment Holy by Douglas K McKelvey; Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship by Jonathan Gibson.
