Commontide

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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Commontide
Prayer
Death & the Departed

The Burial of the Dead — Additional Prayers

Merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life: Raise us, we humbly pray, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; that when we depart this life we may rest in him, and at the resurrection on the last day we may be found acceptable in your sight, and receive that blessing which your well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all who love and fear you: “Come, you blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” Grant this, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Burial Of The DeadThe Burial of the Dead

Provenance

Cranmer 1549

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest Anglican burial prayers, this collect has accompanied English Christian funerals since Thomas Cranmer's first prayer book of 1549. Its closing words – borrowed from Jesus's parable of the Last Judgment – have been spoken over the grave for nearly five centuries.