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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Prayer
Prayers

The Trisagion

An alternative to the Kyrie

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy upon us.

Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.

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Original-language source · public domain

Provenance

Byzantine, c.451

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest surviving formulas of Christian corporate prayer, the Trisagion is a threefold cry of praise first documented in the minutes of the Council of Chalcedon (451). It traveled from Byzantium into Western Good Friday worship and then into modern Anglican prayer books, where it appears as an alternative to the Kyrie.