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
Prayers

Week Starting September 4-10

Proper 18

O Lord God, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Da, quaesumus, Domine, populo tuo diabolica vitare contagia: et te solum Deum pura mente sectari.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 619

Provenance

Gelasian-family, c.790; BCP 1549

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

An ancient prayer in use for well over a thousand years, confronting the three classic enemies of the Christian life: the pressures of the world, bodily desire, and the devil himself. Cranmer brought it into the first English prayer book in 1549 with that tripartite shape already intact; the 1662 revisers sharpened it by changing a single word, asking God's people not merely to "avoid" temptation but to "withstand" it.