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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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Commontide
Blessing
Holy Week

The Great Vigil of Easter — The Lighting of the Paschal Candle

Eternal God, who made this most holy night to shine with the brightness of your one true light: sanctify this new fire, we pray, and so set us aflame with the fire of your love, that with pure hearts and kindled affections we may attain to the radiance of your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Deus, qui per Filium tuum claritatis tuae ignem fidelibus contulisti, novum hunc ignem sanctifica, et concede nobis, ita per haec festa paschalia caelestibus desideriis inflammari, ut ad perpetuae claritatis puris mentibus valeamus festa pertingere. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

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Original-language source

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Great Vigil Of EasterLent & Holy Week

Provenance

Sarum, medieval; ACNA 2019

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer, said over the newly kindled fire at the start of the Easter Vigil, descends from a medieval Latin blessing used at Salisbury Cathedral and across the pre-Reformation Western Church. English prayer books did not carry it at all until 1979; the wording in today's ACNA Book of Common Prayer (2019) is a fresh, poetic recasting of that older translation, not a translation from Latin.