Commontide

For Guidance

Go before us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, through your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Commontide
Collect
Prayers

Saint Stephen

O Glorious Lord, your servant Stephen looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors: Grant that in all our sufferings here upon earth we may love and forgive our enemies, looking steadfastly to Jesus Christ our Lord, who sits at your right hand and intercedes for us; and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, imitari quod colimus: ut discamus et inimicos diligere; quia ejus inventionem celebramus, qui novit etiam pro persecutoribus exorare Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 624

Proper Preface

Preface of Christmas

Because you gave Jesus Christ, your only Son, to be born for us; who, by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary his mother, was made truly man, yet without the stain of sin, that we might be cleansed from sin and given the right to become your children.

Provenance

Gregorian, c.790; Cranmer 1549; Cosin 1662; ACNA 2019

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This collect for the feast of Saint Stephen traces from a Latin oration in the Gregorian tradition, condensed by Cranmer in 1549 and substantially expanded by Bishop Cosin in 1662; the ACNA 2019 prayer book carries Cosin's form forward with light modernization.