This beautiful window stained glass window is found in the Church of St. Dunstan in Canterbury, England. It shows St. Thomas More with his wife, Alice, and his daughter, Margaret, and her husband, William Roper. Thomas wrote the prayer below in 1534 while sitting in the Tower of London, awaiting his execution by order of King Henry VIII, for not signing on to the Oath of Supremacy, which declared the King was supreme head of the Church.
The prayer is a meditation on the Christian life—for all of us, not just those who are going to be martyred in the next twenty-four hours. I've changed a few of the 16th century words to make the prayer more understandable for us and laid out the sentences a little differently for an easier flow. I'd suggest reading the prayer slowly, so its poetic value can be sensed.
You might notice that the saint uses the word world or worldly five times in the first five lines, then a sixth time before the prayer is finished. What is the world and why does it have a negative connotation for Thomas?
World? Well, Abraham Lincoln said, "...if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Yeah, listen to a politician at a rally, news conference or interview. The higher the office, the greater the power. "World" is the signature that looks powerful, the name calling, bullying, mugging for the camera, threats, vanity, spin, distraction, lies, obfuscation, baseness, menacing tone, vulgarity, unaccountability.
"World" is on full display watching an evening of television. "World" is the pop-ups on the computer screen, the commercial breaks throughout a radio show—full of promises, telling you what you're missing, what you absolutely have to have. "World" means power, owning, getting, taking, boasting, fame, honors, exploitation, grasping, pride of place, selfishness, self-centeredness. "World" leaves us feeling dull, confused, tired. "World" is about appearances, deals and conniving. "World" is all that is fleeting.
Two final thoughts: The reference to Joseph in the prayer's last few lines refers to the Book of Genesis story (chapters 37-50) of Joseph, much-loved by his father, Jacob, gifted with the splendid coat, sold cruelly into Egyptian slavery by his jealous brothers. And (12 lines up from the bottom) "vain confabulations" - that's silly, pointless, useless, empty conversations—stupid talk.
Give me your grace, good Lord,
to set the world at no esteem,
to set my mind firmly upon you.
And not to hang upon the blast
of men's mouths.
To be content to be solitary.
Not to long for worldly company,
little and little utterly to cast off
the world,
and rid my mind of all the business thereof.
Not to long to hear of any worldly things,
but that the hearing of worldly
fantasies may be to me displeasing.
Gladly to be thinking of God,
piteously to call for his help,
to lean unto the comfort of God,
busily to labor to love him.
To know my own baseness and wretchedness,
to humble and meeken myself under
the mighty hand of God,
to bewail my sins passed;
for the purging of them
patiently to suffer adversity.
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
to be joyful of tribulations,
to walk the narrow way
that leads to life.
To bear the cross with Christ,
to have the last thing—death—
in remembrance,
To have ever before my eye my death,
that is ever at hand;
to make death no stranger to me;
to foresee and consider
the everlasting fire of hell;
to pray for pardon before the Judge come.
To have continually in mind the passion
that Christ suffered for me;
for his benefits unceasingly to give
him thanks.
To buy the time again that I before
have lost.
To abstain from vain confabulations,
to eschew light foolish mirth
and gladness;
recreations not necessary, to cut off.
Of worldly substance, friends, liberty,
life and all—to set the loss at nought
for the winning of Christ.
To think my worst enemies my best friends,
for the brothers of Joseph could never
have done him so much good with their
love and favor as they did him with
their malice and hatred.
