Commontide

For the Acceptance of Prayer

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

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Commontide
Collect
Collects

Conversion of Saint Paul

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, we may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Deus, qui universum mundum beati Pauli Apostoli praedicatione docuisti: da nobis, quaesumus; ut, qui eius hodie Conversionem colimus, per eius exempla gradiamur.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 626

Proper Preface

Preface of Apostles

Through the great shepherd of your flock, Jesus Christ our Lord, who after his resurrection sent forth his apostles to preach the Gospel and to teach all nations, and promised to be with them always, even to the end of the ages.

Provenance

Gelasian, c. 750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A prayer with deep medieval roots, this collect has accompanied the feast of Paul's conversion since Cranmer translated it for the first English Prayer Book in 1549. Its Latin original circulated in eighth-century Frankish service books and passed into the Sarum Missal, and the English text has barely changed across five centuries of prayer books.