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

The Eighth Sunday of Epiphany

Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we pray, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in mind and body, may accomplish with joyful hearts those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude: ut mente et corpore pariter expediti, quae tua sunt, liberis mentibus exsequamur.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 604

Proper Preface

Preface of the Lord’s Day, or of the Epiphany

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on the first day of the week overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.

Provenance

Gelasian, c. 750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest prayers in regular Anglican use, this collect descends from an eighth-century Roman service book and entered English worship in 1549 when Cranmer translated it for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. Its compact petition – that God clear every obstacle so we may do his work unencumbered – has accompanied Christian prayer for well over a millennium.