Commontide
Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you: Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections, that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Original-language source · public domain
BCP 2019, p. 606
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.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
This prayer opens with one of the most famous sentences in all of Christian literature: Augustine of Hippo's declaration, from the opening page of his Confessions (around AD 401), that God made us for himself and our hearts will be restless until they rest in him. The collect was newly composed for the ACNA Book of Common Prayer in 2019, drawing that Augustinian opening together with a petition adapted from the English Reformation prayer tradition, and asking God to purify our disordered affections.