Liturgy Lives

As some of you know I have a love for liturgy. For my birthday, a friend of mine gave me a copy of the United States Book of Common Prayer from 1818.  I find it awe-inspiring that I am praying the exact words that churches all over the United States have been praying for over 200 years... and God is still listening.  While reading it tonight I came across a beautiful prayer for a someone who is ill:

O Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need; look down from heaven, we humbly beseech thee, behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servant, for whom our prayers are desired.  Look upon him with the eyes of thy mercy; comfort him with a sense of thy goodness; preserve him from the temptations of thy enemy; give him patience under his affliction; and in thy good time, restore him to health, and enable him to lead the residue of his life in thy fear, and to thy glory; Or else give him grace so to take thy visitation, that, after this painful life ended, he may dwell with thee in life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I am pretty sure that this prayer is much better than anything I could ever come up with on my own.  This is why I love liturgy.