We Pray Unrealistically

While praying Matins in the Lutheran rite, the last Collect is the "Collect for Grace,"

O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, You have safely brought us to the beginning of this day. Defend us in the same with Your mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but that all our doings, being ordered by YOur governance, may be righteous in Your sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives... (LSB p. 228)

According to L. Reed, this prayer was found originally in the Gelasian Sacramentary, a predecessor to the Gregorian Sacramentary. Reed also connects this prayer with one attributed to St. Basil in the Eastern Rite First Hour.

Here is a prayer from the end of the First Hour from the Horologion:

Thou Who at all times and at every hour, in heaven and on earth, art worshipped and glorified, O Christ God, Who art long-suffering, plenteous in mercy, most compassionate, Who lovest the righteous and hast mercy on sinners; Who callest all men to salvation through the promise of good things to come: Receive, O Lord, our prayers at this hour, and guide our life toward Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our intentions, and deliver us from every sorrow, evil, and pain. Compass us about with Thy holy angels, that, guarded and guided by their array, we may attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of Thine unapproachable glory: For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

I don't know if this is the prayer Reed had in mind. Obviously these are parallel prayers, but not the same. Note, however the emphasis on our sin and the goodness and mercy of God in this Eastern prayer. This is a feature common to many of the prayers of the Eastern Liturgy of the Hours (aka the Daily Office, or Matins, Vespers, etc.). Add to this the near-continual refrain "Kyrie eleison" throughout Liturgy of the Hours and you get an overwhelming prayer of repentance and faith; there is a saying that the Orthodox find something good to say or do, then they do it three times...or forty.

But praying that we not sin this day strikes me as at once humble and bold. It is bold. How dare we desire such a thing? How could this possibly be, to live an entire day sin-free? Is this a realistic prayer?

Such is it a prayer of humility, for it is unrealistic for us. We sin by "thought, word, and deed," or as the Orthodox pray, we ask God to "sanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our intentions, and deliver us from every sorrow, evil, and pain." So in humility it is our prayer that God would give us such grace as to accomplish this, for we are weak and indolent. It is only our Master that may grant such grace and strength.

But again, is it realistic? The pragmatists in us deny it, and if we are pragmatic, there's no use in doing something, trying something, that cannot be done. To this there is only one response: would you pray the opposite? Would you pray that God would grant us to fall into sin? God forbid! Here our pragmatism must die to Christian hope and faith. Lord may it be so!