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
Collect
Collects

Of a Reformer of the Church

O God, by your grace your servant N., kindled by the flame of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church, turning pride into humility and error into truth: Grant that we may be set aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 639

Proper Preface

Preface of a Reformer of the Church

For you, the master builder, never abandon your Church, which you have built of living stones; you call your faithful servants to restore its ancient walls and reunite its broken ramparts, that it may be a holy temple of your presence.

Provenance

ACNA 2019

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

A modern Anglican template prayer for commemorations of church reformers, whose central image of a saint "kindled by the flame" of divine love and becoming "a burning and shining light" traces through Bernard of Clairvaux's twelfth-century sermons all the way back to John 5:35. The Episcopal Church embedded that Bernardine language in a feast collect, the BCP 1979 generalized it for monastics, and the ACNA 2019 applied it to reformers with a new tailoring clause about turning pride to humility and error to truth.