Being Honest
about our Feelings
March 11, 2020
The World Health Organization declared today that the Covid-19 contagion has become a global pandemic.
I had an online conversation yesterday with several priest colleagues: one of them was complaining that there is no “prayer for a time of plague or epidemic” in the 1979 Prayer Book. Last Sunday, in response to the current concerns about Covid-19, he wanted to use such a prayer to conclude Prayers of the People, and found himself reduced to using one from the 1662 BCP:
“O Almighty God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also, in the time of king David, didst slay with the plague of Pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembering thy mercy didst save the rest: Have pity upon us miserable sinners, who are now visited with great sickness and mortality; that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying Angel to cease from punishing, so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Several of my priest friends replied that this prayer is really inappropriate in this day and age since it repeats the “bad theology” of a belief that natural disasters and epidemic illness were punishments visited by a wrathful God upon us sinners. I agree that such a belief is indeed bad theology. But note that the references behind the prayer are biblical: the deadly seraph snakes overwhelming the Children of Israel (Numbers 24:4-9, cf. John 3:14) and mass deaths by plague (1 Chronicles 21) are both seen as punishments from God. The human truth behind these references is that when really bad things happen and are out of control, you often feel that maybe you are being punished. People suffering from the weakness and exhaustion of illness feel vulnerable, and seek reasons for their suffering. For many of us, it is more tolerable to think that there is a rationale behind it all, that God, perhaps, is punishing us for reasons that we alone may know of, than to think that it is merely random, pointless suffering.
The 1662 prayer “for deliverance from the plague, or other common sickness,” does not say that whatever plague it is being used against is indeed a punishment from God. Rather, it simply cites two cases where people felt they were being punished, and where the deliverance that ultimately came was perceived as God relenting. It refers to the state of our feelings, where we blame ourselves, thinking that somehow there is order and purpose in the chaos of life.
It is an important point—whether what we believe is true, we still need to deal with the feelings we have generated from them. And so often in the Prayer Book we have prayers that, while they may not correspond to scientific facts, correspond to our impressions and feelings. You do not have to be an anti-science hater-of-Galileo to pray, with the Prayer Book and the Bible, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, your name is to be glorified in all the world,” sincerely, because from our day-to-day perspective, it looks like the sun makes a daily course through the heavens and around our earth.
The 1928 U.S. Prayer Book has another (traditional language) prayer against contagion:
“O most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succour. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Here is a prayer I wrote, using models of prayers by others throughout the world:
“Loving God, source of all health and strength: you are our refuge and strength, our very present help in time of trouble. We humbly pray for help, guidance, and sustenance as we and our siblings throughout the world face the threat and danger of pandemic illness from the Covid-19 contagion. We come to you in our need to ask your protection against this illness that has claimed many lives and has affected many more. We pray for your grace for the people tasked with studying the nature and cause of this virus and its disease and of stemming the tide of its transmission. Guide the hands and minds of medical experts that they may minister to the sick bravely with competence and compassion, protect them and keep them well. We pray for governments and private agencies that bear the responsibility of finding cure and solution to this pandemic, and giving true and wise guidance to their people. We pray that the afflicted may not suffer and may be restored to health soon. We pray for those in quarantine that they not transmit nor contract the illness, not become depressed, and may find their isolation an occasion of respite, rest, and healing. We pray for the souls of those who have died, and for their families, friends, and communities. We pray for those who write what many read and say what many hear that they may speak truth based on considered facts and not pass ill-founded rumor. We pray that we all may carefully follow public health and medical advice that we may slow the spread of the illness and be spared its ravages. We pray that the economic life of the regions affected, as well as the livelihoods and community life of those who live there, may be speedily restored. Grant us the grace to have compassion and determination to work for the good of all and to help those in need. Grant this through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, Who healed those who came to him and comforted those in grief and fear, Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.”
Grace and Peace.
–Fr. Tony+
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