Variations on Sursum Corda

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Am I opposed to new compositions?  No.  I oppose "new" for the sake of it being "new".  I oppose "change" for the sake of "change".  

An example of what I cannot abide:

God is with you.

God's with you too.

Open your hearts to God.

Our hearts and minds are God's.

Give thanks to the Most High God. 

Give praise to God all the Earth.

Honestly, there are two worthy kernels in the above, but clad in its ultra-feminist avoidance of the word 'Lord' or the masculine pronoun it sounds more like something one would see on a bumper-sticker or a t-shirt than a sacred dialogue spoken at Holy Mass.  A 'tree liturgy' perhaps...

What could I accept?  Something Biblical, sound theological reasoning, a measure of Anglican or Eastern Orthodox provenance, and a wise sense of limiting its application.  My example below meets these criteria -- if not entirely successfully -- and was meant to be employed in place of Sursum Corda during Ascensiontide and upon the Festival of the Assumption:

The Lord is here.

     Our God is with us.

Lift your hearts to Heaven

     where Christ the Lord doth reign.

All flesh shall behold his Glory.

     All who seek shall adore his Face.

What could you accept in variation in the liturgical order?  Is there any legitimate way to provide variety and variation without resorting to "Or this", that dreadful rubric (or bluebric if we are speaking of the ASB 1980). Although we seem to prefer propositions phrased as Entweder/Oder, we often seem happiest when Both/And is the final result.

I recall that the Joint Liturgical Group had proposed an embolism as an alternative to 'Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.' which was "Christ is Victor. Christ is King. Christ is Lord of all." (I think I recall that correctly.) I thought it was super, but it never went anywhere in the liturgical revisions in the various churches, as far as I know.  Sometimes a clever idea dies in committee.  Sometimes it is used in trial form but forgotten.  And then some liturgical archaeologist comes along, remembers it, dusts it off, and the time proves right for it.  

Who knows what treasures await our discovery if we are all invited to participate in this sacred work of drawing together from the Anglican worship experience an official liturgical form for life within the Church of Rome.

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From the Anglican Patrimony

Introduction to the prayerbook Sursum Corda

t is an undoubted part of every Christian's duty to pray for others ; and, like many another duty, intercession is an ever widening one : it grows with the growth of the Church and her needs : it grows with the growing complexity of human society, as new classes and objects rise up to claim its help : it grows with the advance of human knowledge, as new mysteries of GOD's work and ways are revealed to us : it grows with every acceleration in locomotion, and every advance in intelligence -- in fact almost every step forward in civilisation seems to demand some correlative advance in intercessory prayer.

The duty of intercession is also an every widening element in each indiviudal life : as a man's interests and experiences widen, so must his prayers : at first his horizon is narrow, limited to a small home circle : then he goes out into the larger world, and that too claims his intercessions : and bit by bit, as friends, acquaintances, and interests grow, he must keep pace with all this expansion, not only in the activity of his outer life, but also in all the hidden energy of his life or devotion and supplication.

Again, if he is a man of GOD, there must be a development in his view as to what is a proper subject for intercession : he begins, alas, too often with a narrow view : he does not see how centrifugal and wide-reaching is this power of intercessory prayer : he looks to other things to accomplish his objects, to advance his interests, and to fulfil many of his best projects. But gradually, as he is a man of GOD, he learns otherwise : he finds that he accomplishes more of GOD's purposes and of his own best hopes by a short quiet half-hour of prayer than by days of restless activity : he no longer denies a place in his intercessions to certain parts of his aims and desires on the ground that they are unsuitable subjects for prayer : on the contrary, he insists on finding a place there for them all, for he finds how prayer, far more than anything else, brings him into effective touch with the widest circles of his fellow-men, the largest range of human interests, and with his own best and highest aspirirations, no less than with the eternal purposes of GOD.

From the Introduction to Sursum Corda
W. H. Frere
The Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield
Easter, 1898

"THE HOLY GHOST is in us to make us Christ-like. He is in us to communicate life, as the 'Author and Giver of life.' He is in us to communicate Christ, to enable us to partake of Christ's Body and Blood. He is our never-failing Friend, our never-absent Companion."

The Reverend Arthur Williamson, D.D.

+Laus Deo.

Litany for Friday

O Lord, Who didst come to call sinners to repentance,
Call them still and make them answer Thy call.

Be merciful to those who have no cloke for their sin,
But have seen and hated both Thee and Thy FATHER.

Thou Who didst melt the hardness of the thief,
Soften the hearts of all who are impenitent.

Thou Who didst recover the woman that was a sinner,
Recover all those who have fallen away from Thee.

Thou Who didst call Zaccheus from the sycamore tree,
Arouse the careless and arrest the curious.

Thou Who didst speak the words of spirit and of life,
Enlighten the ignorant and teach the unlearned;

Dispel all prejudices, correct all errors,
Establish Thy people in the truth of the gospel.

Thou Who didst call S. Matthew from the receipt of custom,
Deliver many souls from the slavery of the world.

Thou Who didst pray for Thy murderers,
Pity those who oppose Thy rule and persecute Thy servants.

Thou Who didst cast out many devils,
set free many by the power of Thy grace,
who are possessed by the devils of drink and lust.
Deliver the victims of pride and anger, of greed and selfishness.

Thou Who didst satisfy the doubts of S. Thomas,
Deal gently with those who can scarcely believe.

Thou Who didst uplift the sinking S. Peter,
Support all those who are weak and unstable.

Thou Who didst come to proclaim deliverance. to captives,
Pity all prisoners and loose the chain of their sins.

Thou, Who didst heal the impotent man,
Uphold those who are weakened by past sin.

Thou Who didst still the tempest on the lake,
Rebuke the storms of passion and anger,
and bid the waves be still.

Thou Who didst heal the withered hand,
Recover for many the faculties which they have lost,
of prayer and work, of self-control and self-sacrifice.

Thou Who didst make both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak,
Open deaf ears to Thy message;
Loosen stammering tongues to speak words of penitence.

Thou Who didst put to shame the woman of Samaria,
Reveal to many who are living in sin the shame of their life,
and bring them to repentance.

Thou Who didst raise the dead to life,
Quicken dead souls to the life of righteousness.

JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
Who didst come to save Thy people
from their sins,
Save us, O SAVIOUR.
Hosanna!

from Sursum Corda