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 August 28-September 3

Proper 17

O Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow after us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Tua nos, quaesumus, Domine, gratia semper et praeveniat et sequatur, ac bonis operibus iugiter praestet esse intentos.

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Original-language source

BCP 2019, p. 619

Provenance

Gregorian Sacramentary, c. 800

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This short prayer asking that God's grace "precede and follow" us comes from an early medieval sacramentary and has been prayed in Western Christianity for over a thousand years. Archbishop Cranmer carried it into the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.