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
Prayer
Prayers

Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child — Prayer for the Child

O eternal God, you have promised to be a father to a thousand generations of those who love and fear you: Bless this child and preserve his life; receive him and enable him to receive you, that through your grace and the Sacrament of Baptism he may become the child of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Thanksgiving Birth AdoptionThanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child

Provenance

ECUSA 1979

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A new prayer composed for the 1979 Episcopal prayer book, this collect opens the gift of a child onto the breadth of God's covenant promise in Deuteronomy, and closes by naming Baptism as the moment that promise is sealed for this particular child.