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 Epiphany

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Deus, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum gentibus stella duce revelasti: concede propitius; ut, qui iam te ex fide cognovimus, usque ad contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 601

Proper Preface

Preface of the Epiphany

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.

Provenance

Gregorian, c.700-800

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest prayers still in Anglican use, this collect traces from a Latin oration of the seventh or eighth century through the medieval Sarum Missal, Cranmer's 1549 revision, and a 1979 re-translation that restored the original's vision of seeing God face to face. The star that led the Magi becomes, in the prayer's logic, a figure for the life of faith itself.