Every semester, I start each class by having my students say aloud the following prayer:
O Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of our understanding. Take from us the double darkness in which we have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give us a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant us the talent of being exact in our explanations and the ability to express ourselves with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Every semester I find new truth in it. This is what I’ve been telling students about the prayer yesterday and today as the spring semester begins…
- The prayer begins by addressing three aspects of God. First, He’s the creator of the material universe. All the stuff we see was made by a God we can’t see. Second, He’s the source of literal and metaphorical light. He is the way that we physically and intellectually see/understand anything. Third, He created more than things. He created life. In tracing out these fine distinctions, the prayer asks to declare God’s glory and gives the reason why we’ve come to ask Him for help in the first place. Every good and perfect gift comes from him.
- Before getting to a series of petitions (things that the prayer asks God to give), the prayer includes a request that God take away two things: ignorance and sin. Two things hold us back from learning. One is that we just don’t know stuff. We’re finite human beings. We don’t know how to spell formaldehyde. We don’t even really know what the definition of formaldehyde is, for example. But more than that, because we are human, we are sinners. This means that we choose to do what’s wrong or neglect to do what’s right. Because of those decisions, we have the ability to distort even the good information we do have. If we need God to take away our ignorance and give us truth we don’t have, we also need God to correct our hearts and minds so that we don’t distort the good information we do receive. Many different people can help us with our ignorance, but only God can take away our sin.
- Finally, the prayer asks God to give the student several things. Again the distinctions the prayer makes are sharp. Understanding is worthless without memory which is itself worthless without a practical grasp of what you’ve been taught. We need to not only be able to explain things well in terms of content, but we must be able to present that content in a pleasing way (“charm”). Finally, we ask that God be there from the beginning to the end, not just as a backup plan when our first effort fails.
The prayer’s power comes from acknowledging that God has everything we need. I pray that my students and I take it to heart as the semester begins.