Prayer For The Common Good
Oh my God, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, look upon this world suffering from famine of the Common Good and deign to preserve this perverse generation from ignorance of it in the political and spiritual undertakings of this generation’s leaders in both the ecclesiastical & political realms of Church and polis. Purge from their hearts khubth,1 so that their minds may supernaturally perceive Who is the Common Good, namely Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May the most Holy Ghost prompt tradesmen to recognize authentically human needs and not to exploit the moral weaknesses of fallen human beings for the sake of personal gain and vainglory. May the natural and supernatural order be restored in the human family according to the divine hierarchy. May every man’s faculties of soul and body be rightly ordered and justice prevail within each man, for it is only from this internal ordering of man’s soul that the external justice of the world’s tribes can begin and come to completion in the both earthly and heavenly Jerusalem, of both Palestine and the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Mother Church of the City of God, the new Israel.
O Theotokos, Mother of the Word Incarnate, Immaculate Conception, Mediatrix of all graces, and Co-redemptrix, Mary, whose body and soul was assumed into heaven, come to our aid, who do not deserve You. Grant us to see our souls as you and God see them. By the Holy Spirit strengthen our rational souls and weaken our appetitive and irascible souls. Through the power of the Holy Ghost blot out all khubth and iniquity from both our souls and the entire world, O Most Pure Virgin Mary, conceived without Original Sin.
O St. Joseph, earthly Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and earthly fosterfather of Jesus, you are the exemplar of Christians. Grant that all men, children, and women may follow after your humility, love of poverty, chastity of both body and soul, and love of contemplation of the heavenly mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity and Divine plan of salvation. O father and lover of our souls, Prince of the Church and patron of tribes and clans, guide our own families and clans in the knowledge of the true path and wisdom of God. Grant to us the knowledge of the Good and the ability to follow after it, O Wise and trustworthy King. Amen.
1Khubth refers to a bad moral quality in the treatise, The Reformation of Morals, by a medieval Christian Iraqi philosopher, Yahya Ibn ‘Adi, which denotes the impurity of the soul characterized by proclivities toward foulness of any and every kind, including lewdness (in thought and action), swearing, excessive joking or desire for amusement, excessive anger, and culminating in fraud and deception towards oneself and towards others. It is a moral corruption of the worst kind and yet existing in each and every soul (much like Original Sin). It is the nexus of bad habits in the soul and primeval evil. According to Ibn ‘Adi, who defines khubth as the weakness of the rational soul and strength of the appetitive and irascible souls, it entails “harboring evil for someone else while making a display of goodwill toward him, and employing treachery, craftiness, and imposture in mutual relations…This is one of the worst moral qualities of evil people,” (Yaḥya ibn ‘Adī The Reformation of Morals: A parallel English-Arabic text translated and introduced by Sidney H. Griffith, 3.35).
