Commontide
Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
BCP 2019, p. 598
Preface of Advent
Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great glory to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
One of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's own original English compositions for the 1549 Prayer Book, this collect draws its structure and imagery from Romans 15:4 and condenses Cranmer's Reformation program of Scripture access into a single prayer. Its verbs, to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, have echoed in Anglican worship for nearly five hundred years.