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

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, we pray, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; that, when we shall have served you in our generation, we may be gathered to our ancestors, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope; in favor with you, our God; and in perfect charity with the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O almighty and eternal God, there is no number of thy days, or of thy mercies; thou hast sent us into this world to serve thee, and to live according to thy laws; but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath... let thy Holy Spirit lead us through this valley of misery with safety and peace, with holiness and religion, with spiritual comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost; that, when we have served thee in our generations, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a holy conscience in the communion of the catholic church, in the confidence of a certain faith, and the comforts of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, and perfect charity with thee our God and all the world.

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Original-language source · public domain

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Burial Of The DeadThe Burial of the Dead

Provenance

Taylor src. 1651; BCP 1892

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A prayer for holy dying whose familiar wording was adapted by Anglican revisers from Jeremy Taylor's devotional masterwork The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651). It entered the American BCP by the 1892 revision and was gathered into the burial office, carrying Taylor's signature chain of consolations: communion, confidence, comfort, and charity.