...golf, my knobby old fellows are going strong. Hitting the golf course, I commence my morning prayers. "Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred...own hearts, we have offended against Thy holy laws," but I break off, remembering Nick as a long-haired, gap-toothed teenager. He came home once from a...

...sang out the responses almost rapturously. But Joe, aware of his father's silence, kept silent too. Almighty and most merciful father, we have erred and...desires of our own hearts. We have offended against the holy laws. O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess...

...pronoun in the Confession, which changes it from an act of individual penitence to a corporate act: 'We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost...too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. . . .' H Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c.1580 (New...

...congregation to a phrase in the general confession. We are all familiar with that prayer. It says, "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we...

...ourselves. The General Confession of the historic Anglican Prayer Book states what we always find: "We have followed too much the devices and desires...we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us." Then, on the other hand, God the Spirit forms questions in our minds that we have to answer,...

...phrases like 'the author of peace and the lover of concord'; images like those of the general Confession: 'We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost...too much the devices and desires of our own hearts' - all these transfigured the things and situations to which they were applied. They were familiar,...

...medicine derives from it. J Spence (I960) 1 We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us ... Book of Common Prayer What would induce a middle-aged family doctor of sober habits and previous...

...found in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer: "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us." How much ill-health is there in the world — spiritually, emotionally, physically — because...

...Anglican clergy. Additionally, the words and cadences of the Book of Common Prayer ran in their blood: "Almighty and most merciful Father: we have erred...and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. . . . We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness...

...glory to the confession of our sin: Almighty and most merciful God, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. . . . The believer confesses that the first of the things we must know about ourselves to live and...