Commontide

For the Acceptance of Prayer

Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Commontide
Prayer
Family & Home

For a Child, or for a Birthday

Watch over your child N., O Lord, as his days increase; bless him and guide him, and keep him unspotted from the world. Strengthen him when he stands; comfort him when discouraged or sorrowful; raise him up if he falls; and in his heart may your peace which passes understanding abide all the days of his life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 667

Found in the Prayer Book

This prayer appears in more than one place in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer.

  • Occasional Prayers
  • Thanksgiving Birth Adoption · as “Watch over your child”Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child

Provenance

BCP 1928

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A tender little prayer for a growing child, first printed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer under the plain heading "For a Birthday," and carried, with only small wording changes, all the way to today's ACNA prayer book.