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
Prayer
Prayers

For the Universal Church

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior.  Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 646

Provenance

Laud, c. 1640s

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer for the whole Church comes from the private devotions of Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), composed for his own daily use and preserved in his autograph manuscript at Oxford. It entered public Anglican worship when adopted by the American prayer book in 1928.