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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

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis id amare quod praecipis, id desiderare quod promittis: ut inter mundanas varietates ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 606

Proper Preface

Preface of Lent

You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you.

Provenance

Gelasian, c. 750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer has traveled thirteen centuries and two continents to reach the current prayer book. An anonymous Latin oration in an early-medieval Roman service book, it asked God to unify the wills of the faithful with his own; Cranmer rendered it into English in 1549, and seventeenth-century revisers sharpened its diagnosis of human disorder into the classic phrase "unruly wills and affections."