Prayer in time of plague

Master, Lord our God,You are a spring of compassion that never runs dry,a sea of love for mankind too deep to search,an endless depth of patience and goodness.

In the greatness of Your love for mankindYou bring wounds and plagues on the human racein every generation, for its good,so that our headlong rush toward sin, so hard to rein in,may be held back by fear of You as by a bridle,and may not run wild against the image of Godor do shameful harm to the nobility of the soul.

Stop, we pray, this sharp sword of deaththat is turned against our human natureand takes lives before their time,so that You do not leave us the fewest of all the nations,or hand us over to be scornedby our enemies, unseen and seen.

The cities stand empty,and the markets are gone.The holy feasts, the servicesand the gatherings to sing God’s hymnshave for the most part fallen silent.Fine and great houses stand desolate, as the Scripture says,and no one lives in them.Fear and trembling have come upon us,and the black darkness of this terrible deathhas covered us all.

Master, we have no timeto mourn our dead relatives as the custom is,for our own end is coming too.We look for others to mourn for us,and we are laid in a common grave.Even we who still live and are seenno longer think that we are alive.In fear of this terrible plaguewe hardly trust even ourselves.Each of us imaginesthat we carry the mark of death and the plague within us,and before we diewe die a bitter death from the fear of dying.

These are the wages of our wickedness.This is the fitting result of our evil and unclean deeds.These are the terrible gainsof our lust, our injustice and our broken oaths.This three-headed serpent has sunk its bitter teeth into usand brought this decay and this death upon us.Because of these things, as Scripture says,the wrath of God comes on the disobedient.

So none of us can lift up the eyes of the mind,or pray in purity,or draw down Your mercy,for each of us is bent low by the weight of conscienceas by an iron yoke.

But do not give us up for ever,for the sake of Your holy name,and do not break Your covenant,so that we wretched ones do not losethe time to repent and turn back.That is why, in Your love for mankind,You have brought this deadly plague upon us.

We know that we have often promised to repentand have often lied,and we have been sentenced to be cut downlike the fig tree that bore no fruit.Yet be patient with us still, and longer still,as a Gardener Who loves mankind.You do not desire the death of a sinner,but that the sinner turn back and live.You command us to forgive our brothers’ sinsseventy times seven.You can raise up children for Abrahamfrom hard and fruitless stones.

For to You alone, Master, Lover of mankind,all things are possible that are impossible for human beings.So may Your most holy name be glorified in us toofrom generation to generation,the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever.Amen.