“Prayer (Oh, Father, merciful Father) [version 1]” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 179-180. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 103-105. A variation of this prayer also appears in the UK edition under the title “Dedication and Surrender,” pp. 77-79. (For clarity, we have provided “Dedication and Surrender” with the alternate title, “Prayer (Oh, Father, merciful Father) [version 2]”.)

Although the specific context of this prayer is not known, a major concern in this prayer is avoiding any transgression in the first commandment of the Decalogue, and so we take it as both wry and intense that Grace Aguilar determines to provide a quote from the Epistle to the Hebrews attributed to the early Christian, Paul of Tarsus. Perhaps, then, this prayer served as something of a ward against transgressing too closely into Christianity as she socialized among Christians and attended their churches. Earlier in Sabbath Thoughts she writes,^[2] in “On a Lecture on the twenty-second Psalm,” by the Rev. R.S. Anderson, 9th November, 1836, in Sabbath Thoughts and Sacred Communings [US edition 1852, appended to Essays and Miscellanies (1853)], pp. 17-20. 

There is nothing, in my opinion, that enlarges an unprejudiced mind more than joining with those of another faith in their religious ceremonies….I thank God He has in His mercy permitted me to be so firmly convinced of the truth and holiness of my own belief, that it is a pleasure to me to join with Christians in their religious forms. I am so firmly convinced that the Christian religion is that Kingdom of iron prophesied by Daniel….that all feelings towards Christians, save those of charity, and in my case admiration, have left my breast….When the Kingdom of Iron has extended over the whole world, then will our Messiah, the Saviour of the Jews appear, to cleanse the Christian nation from their impurities, to remove the veil from their eyes, and to receive the Jews once more as the Chosen of God….I know that God sees the hearts of all men, and He knows in what belief, what form my prayers ascend to Him, though to Christians I may appear as one of them….Besides, it is no credit to be firm and steadfast in your own belief if you are ignorant of that of others….”^[3] Excerpted from Beth-Zion Lask Abrahams, “Grace Aguilar: A Centenary Tribute,” in Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England), Vol. 16 (1945-1951), pp. 139-140. 

Source(s)

“Prayer (Oh, Father, merciful Father) [version 1], by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Grace Aguilar

Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion. Although she had been writing since childhood, much of her work was published posthumously. Among those are her best known works, the novels Home Influence and A Mother's Recompense. Aguilar was the eldest child of Sephardic Jewish refugees from Portugal who settled in the London Borough of Hackney. An early illness resulted in her being educated by her parents, especially her mother, who taught her the tenets of Judaism. Later, her father taught the history of Spanish and Portuguese Jews during his own bout with tuberculosis which had led the family to move to the English coast. After surviving the measles at the age of 19, she began to embark on a serious writing career, even though her physical health never completely recovered. Aguilar's debut was an anonymous collection of poems, The Magic Wreath of Hidden Flowers. Three years later she translated Isaac Orobio de Castro's Israel Defended into English at her father's behest. Later her The Spirit of Judaism drew interest and sales in both Britain and the United States after being published in Philadelphia by Isaac Leeser. He added a preface to the work elucidating his differences with her, the first of many clashes her work would have with mainstream Jewish thought. In the 1840s her novels began to attract regular readers, and Aguilar moved back to London with her parents. Despite her success, she and her mother still had to operate a boys' Hebrew school to stay solvent, which she resented for the time and energy it took from her writing. In 1847, she became ill again with a spinal paralysis which she did not let prevent her from visiting her brother in Frankfurt. Her health worsened and she died there that September.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17