Commontide

Preparation for Personal Prayer

Holy Spirit, breath of God and fire of love, I cannot pray without your aid: Kindle in me the fire of your love, and illumine me with your light; that with a steadfast will and holy thoughts I may approach the Father in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ my Lord, who reigns with you and the Father in eternal union. Amen.

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Commontide
Collect
Prayers

A Collect for Aid Against Perils

Tuesday — Evening Prayer

Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Illumina, quaesumus, Domine, tenebras nostras: et totius huius noctis insidias tu a nobis repelle propitius.

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Original-language source · public domain

Provenance

Gelasian, c.750 / Cranmer 1549

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the most enduring prayers in English, this evening collect asks God to scatter the dark and guard us through the night. Cranmer drew it from the closing prayer of medieval Compline, which itself descends from a Latin oration preserved in the Gelasian Sacramentary, and it has closed Evening Prayer in every English Prayer Book since 1549.