Prayer for Grace, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s): Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on: 13 May 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories: Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., dveykut, English vernacular prayer, Prayers for Praying, self-reflection, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot, תשובה teshuvah, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Prayer for grace.
	In my distress I called on the Lord, and He answered me with enlargement — He hath hearkened to the voice of my supplication, and answered to my secret cry: and now, oh Lord, yet hear Thy servant.
	Thy promises have never failed, and yet, oh Lord, my thanks are dead, my praises spiritless, and thus, alas! how can they be acceptable to Thee, who demandest the whole heart and soul of Thy servants, their whole affections?
	Thou, oh God, to whom we owe our every blessing. Thou knowest the weakness of Thy creatures, and demandest but love and devotion in return, and even this we hesitate, and are loth to give.
	Oh, Lord, have compassion on me, unworthy as I am; take not the joy of Thy salvation from me. Oh, so shed Thy Heavenly grace upon my heart that I may constantly feel devotion dwelling there, that gratitude may ever be glowing within me; and then will my thanks be no longer dead, my praises spiritless.
	In moments of enjoyment, oh, pour Thy spirit on my soul, that I may feel it is to Thee, Thee alone, I owe all these things; not to myself, or to my earthly companions; we are but tools in Thy hand: “not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name, give glory.” (Psalms 115:1)
	Oh, let me think on this, and be my spirit warm within me; and in Thy mercy, oh Lord, teach my heart to feel, my lips to speak, Thy goodness and Thy mercy.
	Give me Thy blessed grace, that my soul may not be thus deadened, but that it may feel it is to Thee I owe all these things, every happiness I enjoy, and adore Thy glorious name.
	Father, have compassion on Thy servant, whose excessive weakness is known alone to Thee, and add yet more to Thy abundant mercy by granting me that blessed grace which will enable me to praise Thy name for evermore. “Praise the Lord, praise, oh ye servants of the Lord. Praise the Name of the Lord”; (Psalms 135:1) “Oh praise ye the Lord, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.” (Psalms 117:1-2)
	Praise ye the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

“Prayer for grace” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 229-230. The prayer does not appear in the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853).

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer for Grace, 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

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