I made a simple printable of relevant collects from the Prayer Book to tape up by my kitchen and bathroom sinks. I thought I would share it here, too, in case any of you would also like it.

Download here: Common Prayer in Time of Fear

As I’m sure many others have, I’ve been dwelling a lot on Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I’ve been encouraged by that word “guard.” The peace of God is not something flimsy, evanescent. It’s stalwart, solid, firm. When we make our requests known to God, His peace guards us “manfully” (to use a word from the Prayer Book).

And, I keep thinking of this quotation about prayer that I shared back in the summer (it was quoted in Company of Voices by George Guiver):

“Perhaps at this very moment, on other earths, in other solar systems belong to other galaxies, other beings are turning in the same way we do, or in an equivalent way, towards God: the silence of the abyss contains, perhaps, an infinite murmuring of prayers.

I do not know. But I do know that human beings are praying at this very moment, and always have been. I do not believe there is one single second of time in which there is not one human soul at prayer…

… Let us think of those who think of us without knowing us, let us think of those who pray, of all the silent multitude of souls at prayer. We are not alone. In solitude, silence, forsakenness, in the sleep of matter, the sound and the fury of suffering, of birth, of coupling, of despair, of evil and of good, there is everywhere the peace of prayer, everywhere glimmers of grace; there is the Church of souls.”

Petru Dimitriu, Towards the Unknown God