Anthem 35 - Prevent us O Lord

Welcome to Anthem 35 in my attempt to write a new choir anthem every week for a year. I’m Kevin Mulryne and I hope you will enjoy listening to my progress throughout 2024. Please do visit the website Anthem52.com, follow along on x.com - @realanthem52 or Instagram - @realanthem52 and send me a message to show@anthem52.com.

I've got a little behind in adding these updates over the past couple of weeks. I have managed to write the anthems but not the podcast episodes. Hopefully, I will be fully back on track after this week. The main reasons for this are a family holiday in Devon and a trip to Coventry to settle my daughter into her University accommodation for her first year. She is studying Music Production and Songwriting - more on that topic soon I'm sure.

Back to Anthem 35. This time I found some interesting words in the Irish Book of Common Prayer, not in the usual Psalms sections but in one of the orders of service. I thought it was a passage from St. Luke's Gospel but it's actually a collect used in The Ordering of Deacons service and elsewhere. The words are still good for an anthem though.

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.