Commontide

For the Acceptance of Prayer

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

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Commontide
Collect
Prayers

Week Starting August 21-27

Proper 16

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat: et quia sine te non potest salva consistere; tuo semper munere gubernetur.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 619

Provenance

Gelasian, c.750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

An early medieval Latin prayer from the Gelasian tradition, carried unchanged through the Sarum rite into the first English prayer book in 1549. Its compressed claim, that the Church cannot stand without divine help, is the whole theology of the prayer.