A bishop in another communion has decided to eliminate The Prayer of Humble Access from the liturgy because, in his thinking, having already confessed our sins, we ought not be asking for mercy again so quickly, as we approach the altar to receive the sacraments. A bishop friend of mine commented on the danger of the willy-nilly tweaking of the liturgy just because of personal insights and/or current theological trends. Now, that prayer is not part of our regular liturgy, but it is an option. I wrote,
The need for mercy is perpetual. If I receive the mercy of God in absolution an hour ago, I am no less in need of his mercy this very moment. The problem is that people have confused mercy with forgiveness. Mercy, in the O.T., is clearly understood as “loving-kindness”. Two things are a constant in our lives: we do not DESERVE God’s favor and we NEED his loving-kindness.
