Fr Ben Garren

O God, Make Speed to save us.
O Lord, Make Haste to help us.

—BCP page 117

Dear Siblings in Christ,

This is the opening line of Psalm 70, and in our service of Evening Prayer it is the invocation for praying the evening psalms. This opening to the prayerful recitation of the psalter comes to our worship through Saint Benedict of Nursia and it came to him through Saint John Cassian, who wrote of this verse:

“Not without reason has this verse been selected out of the whole body of Scripture. For it takes up all the emotions that can be applied to human nature and with great correctness and accuracy it adjusts itself to every condition and every attack.

It contains an invocation of God in the face of any crisis, the humility of a devout confession, the watchfulness of concern and of constant fear, a consciousness of one's own frailty, the assurance being heard, and confidence in a protection that is always present and at hand, for whoever calls unceasingly on his protector is sure that he is always present.

It contains a burning love and charity, an awareness of traps, and a fear of enemies. Seeing oneself surrounded by these day and night, one confesses that one cannot be set free without the help of one's defender. This verse is an unassailable wall, an impenetrable breastplate, and a very strong shield for those who labour under the attack of demons.” 

For this reason on this feast of John Cassian, an abbot who died in 435, I suggest you take this verse from the familiar, to the memorized, a verse of scripture to assist us in our life of prayer and in the midst of whatever it may be we encounter in the world. 

Pax,

—Ben