Kyrie Prayers and the importance of memory

In churches like the one I go to, there's always a prayer of confession - expressing regret and sorrow for our failings, both individually and corporately.  I've commented on this quite recently.

Usually there is a prayer that we say together, but sometimes we have what are called 'Kyrie Confessions,' where the congregation respond with the word 'Lord have mercy' to a sentence said by the leader.

I like to think of this form of prayer not so much as a confession of our wayward nature, but of God's unfailing love.  So in my daily prayer, I often compose a Kyrie prayer based on my scripture readings for the day.

Today I was reading a part of psalm 90:

13Turn, O Lord! How long?
    Have compassion on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.
¹⁶ Let your work be manifest to your servants,
    and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷ Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and prosper for us the work of our hands—
    O prosper the work of our hands!

So from that I arrived at this prayer:

Lord, have compassion on us

Lord, have mercy

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love

Christ, have mercy

Let your favour, O Lord our God, be upon us

Lord. have mercy.

Writing a prayer is a good way for me of allowing the words of holy scripture percolate into my whole being.  As I build up a personal library of prayers from different sources, and ones that I am writing myself, I am discovering how they can be drawn from memory the more I use them.

This works in church as well.  My habit with our regular Sunday morning worship is not to take a service booklet, because by now I know the words by heart.  That helps me to be able to close my eyes if I want to, or to open them and look at our stained glass window, and just be more aware of what's going on.