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 September 11-17

Proper 19

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 620

Provenance

Gelasian, c. 750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest prayers in the Anglican tradition, this collect reaches back to the early medieval Roman church, appearing in the Gelasian Sacramentary around 750 AD. Thomas Cranmer translated it for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549; in 1662 the revisers made its petition more explicit by naming the Holy Spirit as the one who directs our hearts, the form all subsequent prayer books have kept.