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

Anointing of the Hands

The Ordination of a Priest — the Bishop anoints the hands of the new Priest with the Oil of Chrism

Grant, O Lord, to consecrate and sanctify these hands by this unction and by our blessing, that whatsoever they bless may be blessed, and whatsoever they consecrate may be consecrated and sanctified, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Ordination Of A PriestOrdination & Institution

Provenance

Romano-Germanic, c.950

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer is said by the bishop while anointing a new priest's palms with oil at ordination. It is genuinely old, going back roughly a thousand years to a Latin formula used across medieval Western Christendom, but it is new to Anglican prayer books: the Reformation-era English ordinals cut it out entirely, and it returned only in 2019, as an optional ceremony in the ACNA prayer book.