The Political Forum

THANKSGIVING
Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)

This week's poetic offering is taken from Lancelot Andrewes' well known book, The Preces Privatæ, which was described by the late 19th century liturgical scholar F.E. Brightman as "a collection of material to supply the needs, daily and occasional, of his [Lancelot Andrewes'] own devotional life, providing for the great departments of the life of the spirit--faith and hope and love, praise and thanksgiving, penitence and petition." It was, Brightman noted, compiled for Andrewes' own use and not published until some years after his death. This particular passage comes from that section of the book devoted to Thursday morning prayer.

Last year's poem for the week of Thanksgiving was Psalm 100, which I strongly recommend again this year as part of your Thanksgiving Day blessing. You can, of course, find it in your Bible or, if you want a few of my thoughts on Thanksgiving Day and some historic background on the psalm itself, read my little essay on T.S. Eliot's great poem, "Journey of the Magi," (accessable from the POETRY index page) for some insights into Andrewes' influence on this famous and wonderful work. In any case, on Thanksgiving Day don't neglect this marvelous prayer by the great Bishop of Winchester. I think you can be assured that God will appreciate it too.

Andrewes is best known as one of the most prominent members of the committee of scholars that produced the King James translation of the Bible. He is generally agreed to have been one of the most powerful preachers and learned theologians of his day. My favorite description of this remarkable human being, man of God, spiritual adviser to Kings and Queens, and warrior in the highly political religious battles of his time appears in a recently published book entitled God's Secretaries, The Making of the King James Bible, by Adam Nicolson. It goes as follows:

"He is in many ways its [the translation project's] hero; as broad as the great Bible itself, scholarly, political, passionate, agonized, in love with the English language, endlessly investigating its possibilities, worldly, saintly, serene, sensuous, courageous, craven, if not corrupt then at least compromised, deeply engaged in pastoral care, generous, loving, in public bewitched by ceremony, in private troubled by persistent guilt and self -abasement."

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?

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