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Sep 1, 2023

Jane Austen

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Cassandra and Jane were sisters. In a family of six brothers, they became close, virtually inseparable. They shared a room and attended boarding school together. While they were both at one time engaged, neither married. When they were apart, they wrote letters back and forth. Cassandra destroyed most of them, claiming they were too personal. I don’t doubt it. Their one hundred sixty surviving letters make frequent reference to various family dramas and inside jokes. When Jane died in 1817, Cassandra wrote, “I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed. She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure. I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself.”
Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote six major novels that are still widely read. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are the most well-known. Religious themes play a significant role in her novels but her Christian faith, in the words of one biographer, “is not obtrusive.” She received little acclaim or fortune, since her novels were published anonymously, as was the custom for female writers of her time. Biographers tend to overlook her strong, vital faith.

Three prayers written by Jane, likely in the 1790’s, were kept by Cassandra. Her prayers are expressed in plural form since they were included in family prayers. The Austen family regularly gathered for evening prayer, utilizing The Book of Common Prayer as their guide. While Jane’s prayers borrow phrases from the Anglican prayer book, they are personal and sincere. Self-knowledge and integrity are consistent themes as is the interplay between faith and morality.

An evening prayer by Jane is included here:

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 everywhere 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, and our resolutions steadfast…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, or 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, O 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 discomfort 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 in Thy care; and heartily do we pray for the safety of all that travel by land or by sea, for the comfort and protection of the orphan and the widow and that Thy pity may be shown upon all captives and prisoners. Above all other blessings, O 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 redeemed us, and taught us to pray: (Lord’s Prayer follows here).

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.