An Evening Prayer by Jane Austen

To Incorporate into Your Own Prayer Life

Jane Austen wrote prayers. This is a fact that seems to escape most literary scholars, the kind of scholars who shudder whenever someone dares suggest that Austen was - gasp! - a devout Christian. In fact, three of the prayers she wrote have survived, kept by her sister Cassandra, though she may have written more. The prayer below is the first of the three. It is an evening prayer, which Austen would have used for private devotion, either by herself or with her family, and especially if anything had prevented her from attending church on a Sunday. On the one hand, it’s beautifully familiar - you can see Austen’s style and diction in every sentence; on the other, it’s refreshing and perhaps a little surprising to see such a devout Austen, when we are accustomed to thinking her quite reticent on matters of religion in her novels. Here is the prayer in full. I have highlighted words that jump out at me as clearly very Austenesque.

Give us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray, as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our Hearts, as with our lips. Thou art every where present, from Thee no secret can be hid. May the knowledge of this, teach us to fix our Thoughts on Thee, with Reverence and Devotion that we pray not in vain.

Look with Mercy on the Sins we have this day committed, and in Mercy make us feel them deeply, that our Repentance may be sincere, & our resolutions stedfast of endeavouring against the commission of such in future. Teach us to understand the sinfulness of our own Hearts, and bring to our knowledge every fault of Temper and every evil Habit in which we have indulged to the discomfort of our fellow-creatures, and the danger of our own Souls. May we now, and on each return of night, consider how the past day has been spent by us, what have been our prevailing Thoughts, Words, and Actions during it, and how far we can acquit ourselves of Evil. Have we thought irreverently of Thee, have we disobeyed thy commandments, have we neglected any known duty, or willingly given pain to any human being? Incline us to ask our Hearts these questions Oh! God, and save us from deceiving ourselves by Pride or Vanity.

Give us a thankful sense of the Blessings in which we live, of the many comforts of our lot; that we may not deserve to lose them by Discontent or Indifference.

Be gracious to our Necessities, and guard us, and all we love, from Evil this night. May the sick and afflicted, be now, and ever thy care); and heartily do we pray for the safety of all that travel by Land or by Sea, for the comfort & protection of the Orphan and Widow and that thy pity may be shewn upon all Captives and Prisoners.

Above all other blessings Oh! God, for ourselves, and our fellow-creatures, we implore Thee to quicken our sense of thy Mercy in the redemption of the World, of the Value of that Holy Religion in which we have been brought up, that we may not, by our own neglect, throw away the salvation thou hast given us, nor be Christians only in name. Hear us Almighty God, for His sake who has redeemed us, and taught us thus to pray.

Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Earlier this week I appeared on Radio Maria England (you can listen to the podcast recording here) and discussed with the wonderful Anna Fleischer how this entire prayer could be taken out of one of Austen’s novels. The devotional tone is much more explicit here, that’s certain, but this focus on repentance, on combating evil habits of temper, on duty, are all in keeping with what C. S. Lewis calls (in his essay A Note on Jane Austen) the moments of ‘undeception’ that Austen’s heroines go through. From Elizabeth Bennet to Marianne Dashwood and Emma Woodhouse, most major Austen characters have crucial moments of self-examination which are akin to this prayer. They realise their faults; they admit their failings; and then, they hope they can continue in their lives with an improved sense of right and wrong. I think we can learn an enormous amount from Austen’s minute focus on the character flaws that, added up, lead us away from the life of the virtues. I’m going to try to use Austen’s prayers more often in my own prayer life, and I hope you’ll do so too.

N.B.: as with last week, I’ve brought to you a shorter post this week as well. This is likely to be the trend in the coming few weeks, as I prepare for the arrival our baby girl and then adjust to life as a family of four. I will post longer essays whenever possible.