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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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Prayer
Personal Devotion

For Seeking God

Teach me to seek you, and as I seek you, show yourself to me; for I cannot seek you unless you show me how, and I will never find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you by desiring you, and desire you by seeking you; let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you.  Amen.

Doce me quaerere te et ostende te quaerenti; quia nec quaerere te possum, nisi tu doceas, nec invenire, nisi te ostendas. Quaeram te desiderando, desiderem quaerendo. Inveniam amando, amem inveniendo.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 672

Provenance

Anselm of Canterbury, c.1078

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A short, tender prayer asking God for the grace to seek him, drawn from the opening chapter of St. Anselm of Canterbury's Proslogion, written at Bec in the 1070s. The familiar English wording is Sr. Benedicta Ward's 1973 translation; it first appears in an Anglican prayer book in the ACNA's 2019 Book of Common Prayer, among the "Occasional Prayers."