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
Blessing
Prayers

The Nuptial Blessing

Holy Matrimony

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that you may faithfully live together in this life, and in the age to come have life everlasting. Amen.

Benedicat vos Deus Pater, custodiat vos Iesus Christus, illuminet vos Spiritus Sanctus. Ostendat Dominus faciem suam in vobis et misereatur vestri. Convertat Dominus vultum suum ad vos et det vobis pacem, impleatque vos omni benedictione spirituali in remissionem omnium peccatorum vestrorum, ut habeatis vitam aeternam, et vivatis in saecula saeculorum.

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Original-language source · public domain

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Holy Matrimony

Provenance

Sarum Manuale, 1506

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

The closing blessing of the marriage rite is one of the oldest continuous formulas in Anglican worship. Cranmer carried it nearly verbatim from the medieval Sarum Manual into the first English prayer book in 1549, and it has stood in every prayer book since.