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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Prayer
Prayers

Prayer and the Laying on of Hands

Confirmation — said by the Bishop before the laying on of hands

Almighty and everliving God, we beseech you to strengthen these your servants for witness and ministry through the power of your Holy Spirit. Daily increase in them your manifold virtues of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness, and the spirit of holy fear, now and for ever. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Confirmation

Provenance

Gallican/Sarum, c.8th–16th c.

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This confirmation prayer is built around Isaiah 11:2-3, the messianic prophecy listing seven gifts of the Spirit. In some form it has accompanied the laying on of hands since at least the eighth century, when a closely parallel text appears in a Gallican liturgical book; Thomas Cranmer gave it its familiar English shape in 1549.