Richard of Chichester - Prayer

Prayer

Richard is widely remembered today for the popular prayer ascribed to him:

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly.

Richard is supposed to have recited the prayer on his deathbed, surrounded by the clergy of the diocese. The words were transcribed, in Latin, by his confessor Ralph Bocking, a Dominican friar, and were eventually published in the Acta Sanctorum, an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints. The British Library copy, contains what is believed to be Bockings transcription of the prayer:

Gratias tibi ego, Domine Jesu Christe, de omnibus beneficiis, quae mihi
praestitisti; pro poenis & opprobiis, quae pro me pertulisti; propter quae
plactus ille lamentablis vere tibim competebat. Non est dolor sicut dolor
meus.

Whomever translated the Latin into English was obviously skilled in his craft as he managed to produce a rhyming triplet, namely "clearly, dearly, nearly". However, versions of St Richards prayer, before the 20th century, did not contain the triplet and it is thought that the first version that did was published in "The Churchmans Prayer Manual" by G.R.Bullock-Webster in 1913. The first use of the rhyming triplet in a hymn was in the "Mirfield Mission Hymnbook" of 1922, and the first use of the phrase "Day by Day" was in the "Songs of Praise, Enlarged Edition" published in 1931.

The author who is credited with translating the prayer from the original Acta Sanctorum and bringing it to public notice, was Cecil Headlam in 1898. The following version in the "Prayers of Saints" is quite different to the one that is familiar today :

THE DYING PRAYER OF S. RICHARD,

LORD JESU CHRIST, I thank Thee for
all the blessings Thou hast given me,
and for all the sufferings and shame Thou
didst endure for me, on which account that
pitiable cry of sorrow was Thine : " Behold and
see, if there was any sorrow like unto My
sorrow ! " Thou knowest, Lord, how willing
I should be to bear insult, and pain, and death
for Thee ; therefore have mercy on me, for to
Thee do I commend my spirit. Amen

The prayer was adapted for the song "Day by Day" in the musical Godspell (1971), with music by Stephen Schwartz. The words used, with a few embellishments, were based on the following from "Songs of Praise, Enlarged Edition":

Day by day,
Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly,
Day by Day.