A Prayer and lesson and prayer

A Prayer and lesson and prayer for those suffering persecution for the sake of the Most Holy Name of Jesus Christ, especially by unjust application of government.

We bring before you Lord God our Father the trouble and dangers of people and nations; the sighing of prisoners, the sorrows of the bereaved, the neccessities of strangers, the dependency of the weary, the failing powers of the aged, Lord draw near to each for the sake of and through your beloved and only Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, come O Holy Spirit our Paraclete, consolation of the sorrowful, down to us at this time with your mighty power into the depths of our hearts. Gladden there with your brightness every dark corner and make all rich with your comfort.
Give us inner warmth that our prayers and praises may go
up to you, our God, through your beloved and only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

Short lesson

And for this reason too, magistrates themselves, having laws as a clothing of righteousness whenever they act in a just and legitimate manner, shall not be called in question for their conduct, nor be liable to punishment. But whatsoever they do to the subversion of justice, iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these things shall they also perish; for the just judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case is defective.

For the End: A Psalm of David, 108.

O God, my praise do not pass over in silence; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and with words of hatred have they encompassed me, and they have warred against me without a cause. In return for my love, they have falsely accused me; but as for me, I gave myself to prayer. And they repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Set Thou a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him go forth condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and his bishopric let another take. let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be vagabonds without a dwelling-place, and let them beg; let them be cast out from their ruined dwellings. Let his creditor search out all his substance, and let strangers plunder all his labours. Let there be for him no helper, nor anyone to pity his fatherless children. Let his children be given over to utter destruction; in a single generation let his name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from off the earth, Because he remembered not to show mercy; and persecuted a man that was poor and a beggar, and one broken in heart, that he might slay him. And he loved cursing, and it shall come upon him; and he delighted not in blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing like a garment, and it went in like water into his bowels, and like oil into his bones. Let it be for him like a garment wherewith he is clothed, and like a girdle wherewith continually he is girded. This is the dealing of the Lord with them that slander me, and with them that speak evil things against my soul. But Thou, O Lord, O Lord, deal Thou with me for Thy name's sake; for Thy mercy is good. Deliver me, for a poor man am I and a pauper, and my heart is troubled within me. Like a shadow when it declineth am I taken away, I am shaken off as the locusts. My knees are grown weak through fasting, and my flesh is changed for want of oil. And I am become a reproach unto them; they saw me and wagged their heads. Help me, O Lord my God, and save me according to Thy mercy. And let them know that this is Thy hand and that Thou, O Lord, hast wrought it. They will curse, and Thou wilt bless; let them that rise up against me be put to shame, but Thy servant shall be glad. Let them that slander me be clothed with confusion, and let them be covered with shame as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth, and in the midst of many will I praise Him. For He hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from them that persecute me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.