A Good General Prayer

This is from the fourth volume of “For all the Saints”, our devotion for this morning. From Basil the Great of Caesarea (329-379)

Remember, O Lord, this congregation present, and those who are absent with good cause; have mercy upon them, and upon us, according to the multitude of thy loving-kindness; fill their garners with good things; preserve their marriages in peace and love; take care of their little ones; lead their youth; give strength to the aged; comfort the timid and afraid; bring home the scattered, restore those who have erred; and unite them all in thy holy catholic and apostolic church. Succor those who are vexed with unclean spirits; go with all traveling by sea or land; protect the widow, shelter the fatherless, deliver those in the mines; and those in exile; those in distress or poverty, or any kind of trouble. Remember all who stand in need of thy pity; those that love us; those that hate us; those who desire our prayers, unworthy though we be to offer them to thee. Remember, O Lord, all thy people, and pour upon them in abundance of thy goodness, granting all their prayers unto salvation. All those who we have not remembered through ignorance or forgetfulness, or through the multitude of their names, do thou thyself call to mind, God, who knowest the name and age of each even from his mother’s wombl. For thou, O Lord, art the Helper of the helpless; the Home of the homeless, the Saviour of the tempest-tossed, the Harbor of the voyager, and the Physician of the sick. Be though all things to all men. For thou knowest them all, their petitions, their dwellings, and their minds. Amen.