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
Collect
Prayers

Week Starting July 17-23

Proper 11

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas, multiplica super nos gratiam tuam, ut, ad tua promissa currentes, caelestium bonorum facias esse consortes.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 618

Provenance

Gregorian, c. 700

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest collects in Anglican worship, this prayer traces to an early medieval Latin oration prayed in Rome and Gaul by at least the 7th century. Its central claim is elegantly paradoxical: God's greatest exercise of almighty power is not conquest or punishment but mercy, the restraint that spares and the compassion that commiserates.