A new recording of an old prayer
Today, my friend Lucy Grace Burnett and I present to you our recording of the Great Litany using the text of the Book of Common Prayer (2019). Feel free to practice along with this recording or simply to listen and pray along with us.
About the Great Litany
In 1544, Thomas Cranmer drew from a variety of historical prayers to produce what he called “the Litany.” It’s a series of petitions covering a very wide range of subjects: from general prayers for mercy, forgiveness, and protection to more specific prayers for women in childbirth and political leaders.
Though it’s fallen out of use in recent years, the Great Litany has been used extensively in historical Anglicanism. It was common in many parishes to pray the Litany every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday in conjunction with Morning Prayer.
Though it can be prayed by anyone at any time, our prayerbook says that it’s “particularly appropriate to use the Great Litany on the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday in Lent,” plus a few other occasions (p. 99). This is essentially a gentle way of saying “you should pray the litany on these days.”
How to Sing the Litany
To pray the Litany during a Holy Communion service on Sunday morning, you begin the service with the Litany instead of having an opening hymn. When used in the context of Holy Communion, the Litany ends on page 96 of the prayerbook (“Lord, have mercy upon us”), then the Celebrant says the salutation (“The Lord be with you”) and the Collect of the Day. The rest of the service carries on as it would ordinarily.
It’s totally fine to say the Litany, but it’s especially beautiful when it’s sung—and it’s not as challenging as you might think. The version from the Altar Book of the Anglican Church in North America is manageable even for an untrained singer.
The appointed person chants the words at a natural speaking pace, following a very simple melody which I demonstrate in the video. The people respond to each petition with a handful of repeated phrases which Lucy Grace demonstrates.
Additional Resources
In my parish, we use printed bulletins, which makes singing the Litany much easier. I’ve condensed the version we put in the bulletins such that it only includes the bare minimum of what’s needed to participate in the responses.
If it’s helpful to you, I’ve put together a little package of graphics for the Litany which you can drag and drop into your bulletins. You may have to do some modification to get them to fit properly, but hopefully this will save you some time. If your church uses screens, you could project them for the congregation.
There are versions of the Altar Book floating around the web in PDF form, but I have also gone ahead and included a PDF of the Great Litany itself in the folder.
Click here to view and download resources for the Great Litany.
Happy chanting!