Day of Prayer

Some people treated today as a National Day of Prayer.  Of course, throughout most of human history, plagues have simply been part of existence -- and Christians have had many, many occasions to pray about them.  The 1662 version of the English Book of Common Prayer contains the following prayer for use "In the time of any common Plague or Sickness":

O Almighty God,

who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness,
for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron;
and also in the time of King David,
didst slay with the plague of Pestilence threescore and ten thousand;
and yet remembering thy mercy didst save the rest;

Have pity upon us miserable sinners,
who now are visited with great sickness and mortality;
that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement,
and didst command the destroying Angel to cease from punishing,
so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.