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

The Kyrie

The Daily Office

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Κύριε, ἐλέησον. Χριστέ, ἐλέησον. Κύριε, ἐλέησον.

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Original-language source

Provenance

Antiochene, c. 380

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest prayers in Christian worship, the Kyrie eleison – Greek for "Lord, have mercy" – was already being sung in Jerusalem by the 380s AD. The threefold Western form (Lord, Christ, Lord) is a Roman addition attested by Pope Gregory the Great around 598. Every Anglican prayer book since 1549 has carried it.