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
Thanksgiving
Prayers

Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child

Almighty God, we give you humble thanks for graciously preserving, through the pain and peril of childbirth, your servant N., who now desires to offer her praises and thanksgivings to you. Grant, we ask you, most merciful Father, that she, with your help, may faithfully live according to your will in this life, and may also partake in the everlasting glory of the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Thanksgiving Birth AdoptionThanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child

Provenance

Sarum, pre-1549

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer of thanksgiving for a mother's safe delivery reaches back to the medieval English Sarum Manual, a priest's handbook in use before the Reformation. Thomas Cranmer translated the Sarum rite into English for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and the prayer carried through every Anglican prayer book to the present; the ACNA 2019 wording descends directly from the 1928 American revision, which first added the phrase about the mother desiring to offer her praises and thanksgivings.