Commontide

For the Acceptance of Prayer

Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Commontide
Absolution
Absolutions

The Absolution (Compline)

Compline

May Almighty God grant us forgiveness of all our sins, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Provenance

Western Office, c. 1000; Anglican form 1979

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

The closing absolution at Compline distills a medieval Latin formula once used throughout the Western Divine Office, petitioning God for forgiveness and "the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit." Though Compline was absent from every Anglican prayer book until 1979, this condensed English version carries that ancient language forward as the communal close of the day's final office.