Commontide
Proper 12
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Original-language source · public domain
BCP 2019, p. 618
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
One of the oldest prayers in Anglican worship, this collect reaches back through the medieval Roman tradition into the early Middle Ages. Cranmer translated it from the Latin for the very first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and its central claim is audacious: God is already more disposed to give than we are to ask, and his mercy covers both what we are afraid to confess and what we are too ashamed to request.