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 — The Commendation

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

This prayer appears in more than one place in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer.

  • Ministry To The Dying · as “A Commendatory Prayer”Ministry to the Sick & Dying
  • Burial Of The Dead · as “Into your hands, O merciful Savior”The Burial of the Dead

Provenance

Cosin, c. 1627

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

Spoken over the body at burial, this commendation entrusts the deceased to Christ the Good Shepherd as "a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming." Its distinctive form traces to Caroline bishop John Cosin's private devotions of 1627 and entered the prayer-book tradition through the 1928 American BCP, which restored prayers for the dead absent since 1552; it has remained through every later US revision to ACNA 2019.