Commontide

Preparation for Public Worship

Guide and direct us, O Lord, always and everywhere with your holy light, that we may discern with clear vision your presence among us, and partake with worthy intention of your divine mysteries. We ask this for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

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Commontide
Collect
Prayers

Week Starting October 30-November 5

Proper 26

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, as we live among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

BCP 2019, p. 622

Provenance

Leonine, c. 500-600

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

One of the oldest prayers in this collection, drawn from the Verona Sacramentary – the earliest surviving Roman liturgical book – and, on the leading reconstruction, composed amid the turmoil of fifth- or sixth-century barbarian invasions. The Verona manuscript records it for Ascension Day; it asks not for escape from ordinary life but for the freedom to live it without being enslaved to what is passing away.