Author: pastorstratman

Lutheran pastor and musician serving St. Stephen's in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

To Go Forward with Your Help

O God,
set us on fire with your Spirit.
Strengthen us with your power.
Enlighten us with your splendor.
Fill us with your grace.
Draw us forward with your help.
O Lord, give us
a right faith,
perfect love,
true humility.
O Lord, give us
simple affection, brave patience,
persevering obedience,
perpetual peace,
a pure mind,
a right and clean heart,
a good will,
a sharpened conscience,
spiritual strength,
a life unspotted and blameless.
And having finished the course,
enter your kingdom by your grace. Amen.

Source: Gallican Sacramentary

Source of this version: Modified from Ancient Collects and Other Prayers, Ed. by W. Bright: J.H. & Jas. Parker, London, 1902, p. 93 #3

 

AncientCollectsAd

A New Testament Blessing (Ephesians)

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith.
Then, being rooted and grounded in love,
I pray that you would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints,
how wide and long and high and deep his love is,
and that you would be able to know
the love of + Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

Source: adapted from Ephesians 3:17-19 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

A Trinitarian Blessing

The Lord God almighty, Father, + Son and Holy Spirit,
the holy and undivided Trinity,
guard you, save you,
and bring you to that heavenly city,
where he lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Original source: Unknown, used in the Church of England

Source of this version: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/principal-services/holy-communion/presedseasonal/trinity2.aspx

Also found here: http://justus.anglican.org/~ss/commonworship/funeral/prayers2.html

A Mozarabic Blessing (1)

antifonariodelec3b3n1May the rich blessing of the Lord attend us,
and grant us all remission of sins.
May the Lord graciously protect us from all evil
and mercifully preserve and keep us in all good,
and may he who created and redeemed us
preserve us for himself unspotted to the end.
Amen.

Source: Mozarabic Psalter

Source of this version: http://rockhay.tripod.com/worship/benewip.htm

Also found here: http://blogs.gcu.edu/spiritual-life/weekly-devotional-shattered-glass/

And here: http://www.gracewoodlands.org/filerequest/1851.pdf

Graphic: Mozarabic manuscript from the Cathedral of Leon, from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Mozarabic, ad.

A Gallican Blessing

May God the Father bless us,
who created all things in the beginning,
May the + Son bless us, who for our salvation
came down from his throne on high,
May the Holy Spirit bless us,
who rested as a dove on the Christ in Jordan.

May  he sanctify us in the Trinity
whose coming in judgment all nations look for.
Amen.

Source: Gallican Missal

Source of this version: http://rockhay.tripod.com/worship/benewip.htm

Also found here: http://newlife.org.my/shahalam/be-blessed/

 

AncientCollectsAd

A Blessing from the Psalms

May God be gracious to us and bless us.
May his face shine on us–
so that his way may be known on earth,
his salvation among all nations.
God, our God, will + bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Source: From Psalm 67 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

This blessing was sung to the chant tune of the Magnificat in German Lutheran liturgy in the 1600s and 1700s. (Text is from the English Standard Version)

Psalm 67

With German text from Schatz des liturgischen Chor- und Gemeindegesangs

Ps 67

A New Testament Blessing (1 Thessalonians)

May God our Father himself
and our Lord Jesus
increase your love
and make it overflow for each other
and for all people,
so that he  may establish your hearts
as blameless in holiness
before our God and Father,
when our Lord + Jesus comes
with all his saints.

Source: Shortened from 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

Unshortened, it reads:

May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord increase your love and make it overflow for each other and for all people, just as ours does for you, so that he  may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints.

Source: 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

A New Testament Blessing (Jude)

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you faultless
in the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior,
be glory, majesty, power, and authority
through + Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all time, now, and to all eternity.
Amen.

Source: Jude 24-25 (Evangelical Heritage Version)