"A heart to love and dread thee..."

"Should I Pray Someone Else’s Prayers?" is a post at the Canadian TGC site. The author:

.... So why would I—a low church, Baptist—find prayers written by someone else useful? More specifically, why would I find the written prayer in The Book of Common Prayer called The Litany useful? It’s because praying the Litany on a consistent basis reorients me to the fact that I live each moment of my life by the grace of God alone.

I believe that we live, breathe, and have our very being in God’s grace and his grace alone. ....

You can conscientiously “own” a set prayer. This shouldn’t be so hard to believe. Those of us who grew up in settings that were averse to set prayers actually prayed several set prayers each Sunday at church. We just didn’t know what we were doing.

Typically these prayers were projected onto a wall! Each time we sang a worship song written by someone else we were making the songwriter’s prayer our own. We were praying someone else’s written prayers but none of us had a problem with it.

Why? Because we understood that you could merely repeat the words on the screen as a rote exercise or you could take those words as directions for expressing the content of your heart.

I suspect that the latter also occurs when we make set prayers, like The Litany, our own. You can feel free to adopt the words of biblically-based, gospel-centred, Christ-exalting prayers written by someone else as our own. .... (more)

The litany to which he refers is the one found in The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Version (Downers Grove: IVP, 2021). It is pretty comprehensive.

FROM all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From fornication, and all other deadly sin; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandment,
Good Lord, deliver us.
By the mystery of thy holy incarnation; by thy holy nativity and circumcision; by thy baptism, fasting, and temptation,
Good Lord, deliver us.
By thine agony and bloody sweat; by thy cross and passion; by thy precious death and burial; by thy glorious resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost,
Good Lord, deliver us.
In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgement,
Good Lord, deliver us.
WE sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God, and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy church universal in the right way,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to rule the heart of thy servant, and all others in authority, that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to be their defender and keeper,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to endue the legislature, and the ministers of state, with grace, wisdom, and understanding,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to bless and keep the judges and magistrates, giving them grace to execute justice and to maintain truth,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to illuminate all bishops, priests, and deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and show it accordingly,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to give us a heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace, to hear meekly thy word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand, and to comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise up those who fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to succour, help, and comfort all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to preserve all who travel by land, by water, or by air; all women labouring with child, all sick persons, and young children, and to show thy pity upon all prisoners and captives,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to defend and provide for the fatherless children, and widows, and all who are desolate and oppressed,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so that in due time we may enjoy them,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy holy word,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us.
Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world,
Grant us thy peace.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
O Christ, hear us.
O Christ, hear us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Chris Woznicki, "Should I Pray Someone Else’s Prayers?" TGC Canadian Edition, May 24, 2022. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Version (Downers Grove: IVP, 2021)