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For Guidance

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path we may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Collects

A Collect for Aid Against Perils

Tuesday — Evening Prayer

Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Illumina, quaesumus, Domine, tenebras nostras: et totius huius noctis insidias tu a nobis repelle propitius.

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Original-language source · public domain

Provenance

Gelasian, c.750 / Cranmer 1549

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the most enduring prayers in English, this evening collect asks God to scatter the dark and guard us through the night. Cranmer drew it from the closing prayer of medieval Compline, which itself descends from a Latin oration preserved in the Gelasian Sacramentary, and it has closed Evening Prayer in every English Prayer Book since 1549.