TE DEUM LAUDAMUS: WE PRAISE YOU, O GOD
We praise you, O God: we acknowledge you to be the Lord. All the earth worships you, the Father everlasting. To you all angels cry aloud: the heavens, and all the powers therein. To you cherubim and seraphim continually cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory.” The glorious company of the apostles praise you. The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise you. The noble army of martyrs praise you. The holy Church throughout all the world does acknowledge you; The Father of an infinite majesty; Your honorable, true, and only Son; Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
You are the King of glory, O Christ; You are the everlasting Son of the Father. When you took it upon yourself to deliver man, you did not abhor the Virgin’s womb. When you had overcome the sharpness of death, you opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. You sit at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father. We believe that you shall come to be our Judge. We therefore pray you, help your servants, whom you have redeemed with your precious blood. Make them to be numbered with your saints in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save your people, and help your heritage. Govern them, and lift them up for ever. Day by day we magnify you; And we worship your name ever, world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. O Lord, have mercy upon us: have mercy upon us. O Lord; let your mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in you. O Lord, in you have I trusted: let me never be confounded.
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO: GLORY BE TO GOD ON HIGH
Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards men. We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you, we give thanks to you for your great glory, O Lord God, heavenly king, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son Jesus Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. You that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. You that takes away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. You that sits at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us. For you alone are holy, you alone are the Lord, you alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit, are most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
A GENERAL THANKSGIVING
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and lovingkindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, for the hope of glory. And we beseech you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may show forth your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
PREFACE TO THE ANAPHORA OF BASIL THE GREAT
Master, the One who is, Lord, God, Father, Almighty, who are to be worshipped, it is truly right and proper and fitting the majesty of your holiness to praise you, to hymn you, to bless you, and to worship you, to thank you, to glorify you, the only God who truly exists; to offer you with a broken heart and a spirit of humility, this our reasonable worship. For it is you who have granted us the knowledge of your truth. And who is able to tell of all your acts of power? To make all your praises heard or to recount all your wonders at every moment? Master of all things, Lord of heaven and earth and all creation, seen and unseen, who are seated on a throne of glory and look upon the deeps, without beginning invisible, unsearchable, uncircumscribed, unchangeable, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great God and Saviour, our hope, who is the image of your goodness, perfect seal of your likeness, revealing you the Father in himself, living Word, true God, pre-eternal Wisdom, Life, Sanctification, Power, the true Light, through whom the Holy Spirit was made manifest, the Spirit of truth, the grace of sonship, the pledge of the inheritance to come, the first-fruits of the eternal good things, the life-giving power, the source of sanctification, through whom every rational and intelligent being is empowered, worships you and ascribes to you the everlasting hymn of glory, because all things are your servants.
GREAT ARE YOU: A PRAYER OF AUGUSTINE
Great are you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and of your wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of your creation, desires to praise you—man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that you resist the proud—yet man, this part of your creation, desires to praise you. You move us to delight in praising you; for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Amen.
THE GIFT OF THE SON: A PRAYER OF MARTIN LUTHER
O Lord, I do not deserve a glimpse of heaven, and I am unable with my works to redeem myself from sin, death, the devil, and hell. Nevertheless, you have given me your Son Jesus Christ, who is far more precious and dear than heaven, and much stronger than sin, death, the devil, and hell. For this I rejoice, praise, and thank you, O God. Without cost and out of pure grace you have given me this boundless blessing in your dear Son. Through him you take sin, death, and hell from me, and grant me all that belongs to him. Amen.
LEAD US: A PRAYER OF AUGUSTINE
Lead us, O God, from the sight of the lovely things of the world to the thought of you their Creator; and grant that delighting in the beautiful things of your creation, we may delight in you, the first author of beauty and the Sovereign Lord of all your works, blessed for evermore. Amen.
A TRINITARIAN BENEDICTION OF JOHN WESLEY
Now, to God the Father, who first loved us, and made us accepted in the Beloved; to God the Son, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to God the Holy Spirit, who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts, be all love and all glory in time and to all eternity. Amen.