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

Week Starting July 24-30

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.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuae et merita supplicum excedis et vota: effunde super nos misericordiam tuam; ut dimittas quae conscientia metuit, et adicias quod oratio non praesumit.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 618

Provenance

Roman sacramentary, trans. Cranmer 1549

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.