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.

Touch screen to pause

Skip to main content
Commontide
Prayer
The Nation

For Congress or a State Legislature

O God, the fountain of wisdom, whose will is good and gracious, and whose law is truth: So guide and bless our Senators and Representatives assembled in Congress, that they may enact laws pleasing in your sight, to the glory of your Name and the welfare of this people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 657

Provenance

American Episcopal, merged 1979

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

An American prayer with roots in the first Episcopal prayer book of 1789, this collect was shaped across two centuries into its present form by the 1979 revision, which merged a colonial-era prayer for Congress with a shorter state-legislature prayer that entered the book in 1928. It asks for legislators who enact just laws, drawing its opening address from the language of Psalm 119.