O God, our Father, we are exceedingly frail, and indisposed to every virtuous and gallant undertaking: Strengthen our weakness, we beseech thee, that we may do valiantly in this spiritual war; help us against our own negligence and cowardice, and defend us from the treachery of our unfaithful hearts; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Thanks Kendall. I really appreciate this prayer today. I’m feeling quite exhausted and overwhelmed and feel like copping out of some commitments I’ve made. This prayer helps.
Could you list a source please?
Fr Yousuf Rassam
To me it looks like a condensation and rearrangement (a pastiche) of the 1701 Stanhope translation of chap. 24 of the so-called Meditations of St. Augustine (Liber Meditationum, PL 40, cols. 918-919 (901-942)), which is spurious. On p. 61 of his Love of learning and the desire for God, Jean Leclercq attributes the Meditations (I don’t yet say PL 40 cols. 901-942 specifically) to the 11th-century John of Fécamp, but I have not yet followed up on any of this.
More to come at http://liberlocorumcommunium.blogspot.com/ as time permits (since nobody on the web gives a source, let alone gets it right).
The Stanhope translation of The Meditations of St. Augustine is on Google Books. Every phrase/clause in the above quote (with the exception of “O God, our Father,” and “for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord”) appears in chap. 24 verbatim. And the Meditationes (or Liber meditationum) is the work (as I’ve already said) of John de Fécamp. Latin is, again, PL 40, cols. 918-919.
More information here eventually:
http://liberlocorumcommunium.blogspot.com/2010/08/pseudo-augustine-jean-de-fecamp-on.html