Thomas à Kempis, Prayer for Sunday 9-11-2022

I bless you, and give thanks to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, most mighty King of kings, for your persecution, and for the hardships forced upon you, in the days of your childhood, when you fled from the face of the most wicked King Herod, and were driven forth as a stranger and an outcast from your own land, and had to enter in secret that land of Egypt, from which, in the days of old, you had with a mighty hand led forth the children of Israel.

Grant to me now, I ask you, O my beloved Jesus, to tread, at least in my small degree, in your steps, in this matter of patience; give me grace not to murmur when I have to suffer wrong; but rather humbly to give way to an angry man, to submit cheerfully to being laughed at, and evil spoken of; and when any one vexes and annoys me, give me grace to curb my anger against him, to pray earnestly for his salvation, and so far as may be, to set down his fault to the account of the old serpent who led him into it.

Give me grace to live peaceably with others, willingly to give way to them, and with them patiently to bear, for your honor and glory, the lack of this world’s goods, no matter how great it may be.

Amen.

Elliot Ritzema, ed., 400 Prayers for Preachers (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012)