Prayer for Every Night, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=50970
open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication Date: 2023-05-15
Last Updated: 2024-12-17
Categories: Bedtime Shema
Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English, wards against excessive pride, writing, תחינות teḥinot
Excerpt: "Prayer for every night" by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section "Sacred Communings," pp. 223-224. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on page 136. . . .
Content:
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Prayer for every night.
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Almighty Father! if it please Thee
to grant health and peace to descend
on this my home, and all that are dear to me,
that I may be enabled regularly to employ my time,
oh let Thy blessing attend me,
and enable me to feel Thy spirit dwelleth
within me, and encourageth all I do.
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Aid me to keep my resolutions.
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Assist me in the cultivation of those talents
Thy loving kindness hath bestowed on me,
that in the proper use of them
I may show forth Thy glory,
and repay my parents
for the tender care they have taken
of my infant years.
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And yet, Almighty Father, in Thy mercy
guard me from the sin of selfishness;
let me not become so engrossed
in my own pleasures and studies
as to forget or neglect
my domestic and social duties.
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Let me bear submissively
whatever it please Thee to ordain,
and give me grace cheerfully and willingly
to give up my own inclination
for the sake of others.
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Let Thy blessing be with me, oh Lord.
Let health and peace
be the portion of all around me,
and permit me in Thy mercy
to adhere steadily and calmly
to the rules I have laid down.
As Solomon saith,
“for everything there is a time,” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
permit me to perform my earthly duties
in that manner most acceptable to Thee.
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Blessed be Thy Name! —
Amen.
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“Prayer for every night” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 223-224. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on page 136.
Source(s)
Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Co-authors:
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Name: Grace Aguilar
Bio: 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.
Website: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/aguilar-grace
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/grace-aguilar
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Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Bio: 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.)
Website: https://aharon.varady.net
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription
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