The Litany during Lent
The penitential aspect of Lent is often too easily focused on the external, but the season is meant to affect the whole person: the flesh and the heart. We can get caught up in the many prayers and rigorous fasting, and the quantity of devotions outshines the quality. We can have a lot of words, but they aren’t accompanied by the heart. We become like the heathens, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:7, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” What are these vain repetitions? The Greek word here refers to someone who stammers or stutters their words. Some lexicons define it as onomatopoetic words and speaking without thinking. These definitions help round out a picture of someone saying the same words repeatedly, even in a nonsensical manner, to give the appearance of saying many words. What Jesus is correcting becomes clear when coupled with an understanding that pagans in the first century often thought they had to use many words or incantations to get the attention of the gods. This is explained in the following verse: “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” (v. 8). God is already listening to you; you don’t need to get his attention. When you pray, don’t say meaningless things as though your words don’t matter; rather, let your words and your heart be joined together, for God knows and cares about your heart.
How then do we understand praying the Litany during Lent? Some marvel at the Litany and praise Cranmer for penning one of the greatest gifts of Anglicanism. J.I. Packer says, “Do you ever dry up in prayer, feeling you have nothing to say? Live with the Litany, and that will not happen again!” And he refers to it as a “pattern of prayer for all time.” Others, however, view the repetition as monotonous, maybe even verging on vain repetition. While I may not be as excited about the Litany as Packer (perhaps, I haven’t “lived with it” long enough), I certainly can’t agree with those who try to claim it as vain repetition. As we have just seen, not all repetition is vain. We are not trying to garner the attention of God, nor are the words meaningless. The repetition appears only in the laity assenting to each petition, but, when viewed as a whole, it logically progresses from Trinitarian invocation to prayers for deliverance, intercessions, and a concluding prayer and supplication to Christ. In fact, in Morning Prayer, it says that if you have prayed the Litany, the ending prayers “shall be omitted.” This rubric flows from the logic that you have just prayed for everything; there is nothing more that needs to be added.
How then do we help ensure that as we pray the Litany, we don’t slip into mindless reading? I think, if we are honest with ourselves, this question pertains not just to written prayers but to any prayer. Mindlessness in prayers is not unique to written prayers. That is why you hear some people pray, “Dear Jesus... in your son’s name we pray. Amen.” Last I checked, Jesus did have a son, and we certainly are not supposed to pray in Jesus’s make-believe son’s name. The answer to this mindlessness is that we must connect the head and the heart. If you think about it, you can connect your name or someone else’s name to every one of the petitions in the Litany. We should all pray that God forgives our sins and offenses and that we are delivered from evil, sin, and the devil. That we are delivered from inordinate affections, saved from natural disasters, from an unprepared death, etc. But we also know those whom we pray for when we list those in authority, both in the State and in the Church. We know people who are called to be missionaries, foreign and domestic. We know of those who have been deceived, those who need to hear and receive the Word of God, those who are in tribulation, those who are traveling, are widows, orphans, oppressed, and those who are our enemies. When we pray the Litany, try to associate a name with each petition.
Lastly, as we come to the First Sunday in Lent, why do we chant the Litany? As St. Augustine is credited with saying, “Those who sing once, pray twice.” Chanting forces us to pay attention not only to the words but to those around us as we pray this together. Additionally, it allows us, and ideally should help us, to focus on each petition, slowing us down and giving us space to think about it and attribute a name to it.
One of the gifts of Lent is that it forces us to slow down and be more intentional. If we avail ourselves of this benefit, God will form us, not just outwardly, but in our hearts. I am praying for you all that the transformative work of God will continue to take root in your hearts and that you might have a blessed and holy Lent.
God's Peace,
Fr. Aaron