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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Prayer
Prayers

For Those in the Armed Forces

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 655

Provenance

Episcopal 1979

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A unified prayer for all branches of military service, whose earliest confirmed home is the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer. It gathers into one petition what older Anglican use had split into separate prayers for the Army and the Navy, covering all the armed forces at home and abroad.