Category: Christian Prayer

The Pomeranian Church Order and Agenda

The Pomeranian Church Order and Agenda is significant for many reasons:
• Parts of it were confessional—similar in content and function to the Augsburg Confession and the other Lutheran Confessions.
• Parts of it were foundational, like a church constitution—and that is chiefly what is meant by Church Order.
• Parts of it were instructional, like a textbook on pastoral theology.
• And parts of it were liturgical, prescribing rites and ceremonies for the territorial church.

This is really two books:
• The first is the edition of 1563, which reflects the preliminary work by Johannes Bugenhagen and his collaborators.
• The second is an expansion printed in 1568, with fuller instruction and more complete rites.

I aimed to make a comprehensive translation with no abridgements or condensing of material. I also tried to be dynamic in translating, keeping the modern English-speaking reader in mind.

This translation is being published mostly for historical purposes. Because the Pomeranian, and later the Swedish state was sanctioning and supporting the church, the clergy in the church could rely on officials in the state to support and enforce church actions and discipline. The state likewise depended on the church to handle matters like marriage, divorce, and smaller matters that would not be the concern of churches today. There are also some practices that seem odd, like a confessor prescribing alms to the poor or to the church as penance. Still, there is much here that is theologically sound in both doctrine and practice, which can encourage and guide better church practices today.

A study of history—in this case, the history of how the 16th and 17th-century Pomeranians governed their churches, worshiped, and prayed—gives us occasion to examine how we govern our churches, worship, and pray.

Now available through Amazon, in paperback and for Amazon Kindle.

You can preview my early translations of the prayers and some of the rites here.

A history of Johannes Bugenhagen, the Pomeranian Church, and The Pomeranian Church Order and Agenda can be read here.

Annual Report, June 19, 2026

It has been an active year with revisions of some publications and some new publications in development. Also, ACOP’s materials are being used in an expanding circle.

New covers with a unified design were prepared for Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, The Antiphonary of Bangor, The New Ancient Collects. In time, the other parchment covered books will have the redesigned covers.

Some minor corrections were made to Prayers Ancient Made Modern, which is my number two seller, second only to Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church.

Searches and hits on  Sanctus / Holy, Holy, Holy, Kyrie, Eleison / Lord, Have Mercy, Go Forth into the World, Support Us All the day Long, Deliver Us from Every Evil, Martin Luther’s Evening Prayer, and and Agnus Dei / Lamb of God all in the top hits and searches. The devotional booklets The Way of Light (Easter) and The Scriptural Way of the Cross are the top document downloads.

The chief views continue to be from English speaking countries (U.S., U. K., Canada and Australia), but there is growing usage from the Philippines, Jordan, India, Singapore, China, South Africa, and Indonesia!

Links to A Collection of Prayers

WordPress lets me see referrers, that is, other websites that have a link to A Collection of Prayers. After search engines, the biggest referrers are a liturgy website www.liturgies.net, the Christian spirituality website www.christianity.com, followed by individual ministries, churches, and even some denominational websites.

Wartburg Watch often used prayers from A Collection of Prayers in their online worship blog. After Easter, Wartburg Watch discontinued their online worship blog since many churches offer online options.

As mentioned above, some books got new covers with a more uniform style. Prayers Ancient Made Modern received some minor corrections.

My publications have taken a more historic turn:

This year I released a translation of Summary of Christian Teaching for Young People by Veit Dietrich. The Summary… was a significant book in Lutheran history, since it was mentioned in agendas and other works since the time of the Reformation. Strangely, I could find only the first printing. Summary… is well known for the collects that accompany each Sunday’s devotional commentary. They were widely used in Scandinavian churches, and are printed in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996). To my knowledge, this is the first complete translation of the Summary into English.

The translation of another historic book is in development, The Pomeranian Church Order and Agenda is in the final stages of proofreading. As the word Agenda implies, it was a book for leading worship. It was also a book of church law for the duchy of Pomerania, which set very high standards for churches, pastors, and other church workers. I anticipate a late August 2026 release.

As always, the sale of books pays for the website and supports research.

Beyond This Website, Books and Products

  • The Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod used psalm prayers from two of my books (Sarum and Mozarabic) for a worship conference that focused on psalms. These reproducible sheets may also be available in book form in the future. I will put up a link if and when this appears in book form.
  • Crossway Publishers has released their Sing! hymnal in September 2025, and they used nine prayers from my books as filler for some white spaces in their book.
  • The prayer anthology from Eerdmans, Prayers from the Cloud, includes my translation of the Lorica of St. Fursey.
  • Other devotional publishers have also contacted me about using A Collection of Prayers and some of my books as a source. Congregations of many denominations and individuals have contacted me for permission to use prayers from the website or from my books in works for public or private devotions. I am always happy to share my work–which is what A Collection of Prayers is all about.

May God be glorified and our neighbors edified!

NEW! Summary of Christian Teaching by Veit Dietrich

This is an English translation of Veit Dietrich’s Summaria Christlicher Lehr für das Junge Volck. It was first published in German in 1546. An explanation of the work found on the University of Vienna’s website states, “Until the 19th century, this book served as a devotional resource in many communities. Its advantages are simplicity and didacticism.” Dietrich wrote a devotional and instructional commentary on each of the Gospels of the Historic Lectionary, each followed with a short prayer. This book is historically significant because it is mentioned in other Reformation era agendas, and because the prayers were popular in Scandinavian churches.

Available in paperback, for Amazon Kindle, and as an audiobook.

March 15

I know, Lord, and acknowledge myself unworthy of your love. But I am sure you are altogether worthy of mine. I am not good enough to serve you, but you have a right to the best service I can give. Give me some of that excellence that will supply my own lack of worth. Help me to cease from sin against your will, that I may render you service according to my duty. Enable me so to guard and govern myself, to begin and finish my course, that when the race of life is run, I may sleep in peace and rest in you. Be with me to the end, that my sleep may be rest indeed, my rest perfect security, and that security, a blessed eternity. Amen.

St. Augustine (354–430). Revised from Prayers Ancient and Modern.

Prayers Ancient Made Modern (annotated) is available in print and on Amazon Kindle through Amazon.com.

Based on Prayers Ancient and Modern originally selected and arranged by Mary Wilder Tileston, 1897. Now in public domain.

This edition, Prayers Ancient Made Modern, revised by Paul C. Stratman, copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.

Reprinted from Prayers Ancient Made Modern, copyright © 2024 Paul C. Stratman.

Merry and Blessed Christmas from A Collection of Prayers

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Natal, Joyeux Noël, Fröhliche Weihnachten, 圣诞节快乐！(Shèngdàn Jié kuàilè!), счастливого Рождества (Schastlivogo Rozhdestva), щасливого Різдва (Shchaslyvoho Rizdva) to all our readers around the world from A Collection of Prayers.

May the glory of the Christchild give you strength, healing, pardon and peace!

+ In Christ +

Paul C. Stratman
Editor/curator of A Collection of Prayers

Bless My Life with Growth in Grace

Blessed fountain of life, I praise you for your living breath in me! Bless my life with growth in grace, and increase my knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lengthen my patience, strengthen my soul in humility and zeal, and set my heart and mind on things above. I hunger and thirst for your righteousness. Heavenly Father, feed me with the living bread of your Word, teach me to do what pleases you, lead me by your gracious Spirit, and renew your holy image within me. I ask and hope through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom we have received all the fullness of your grace. Amen.

Source: Freely modified from a prayer by Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) in Prayers Ancient and Modern, p. 238 (August 25).

Original in traditional English:

O Thou ever blessed fountain of life, I bless Thee that Thou hast infused into me Thine own vital breath, so that I am become a living soul. It is my earnest desire that I may not only live, but grow; grow in grace, and in the knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May I grow in patience and fortitude of soul, in humility and zeal, in spirituality and a heavenly disposition of mind. In a word, as Thou knowest I hunger and thirst after righteousness, make me whatever Thou wouldest delight to see me. Draw on my soul, by the gentle influences of Thy gracious Spirit, every trace and every feature which Thine eye, O heavenly Father, may survey with pleasure, and which Thou mayest acknowledge as Thine own image. I ask and hope it through Him of whose fulness we have all received — Amen.

Prayers Ancient Made Modern is available through Amazon.

Based on Prayers Ancient and Modern originally selected and arranged by Mary Wilder Tileston, 1897. Now in public domain.

This edition, Prayers Ancient Made Modern, revised by Paul C. Stratman, copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.

Reprinted from Prayers Ancient Made Modern, copyright © 2024 Paul C. Stratman.

The New Ancient Collects

For over 150 years, Bright’s Ancient Collects has been a standard resource for classic Christian prayers. The New Ancient Collects is a complete revision and refreshing of all the prayers in Bright’s Ancient Collects with updated language.

Since 2017, The New Ancient Collects has been available as one of A Collection of Prayers’ publications. In 2025 the cover was updated to match some more recent publications.

Click here for paperback, Kindle, or Audiobook formats.

Here is an example of the kind of updating that was done:

BAC,p.46
NewAncientp37

Annual Report, June 21, 2025

Again, I haven’t posted many new prayers in the last year. It has been an active year with publications and with ACOP’s materials being used in an expanding circle.

Searches and hits on Kyrie, Eleison / Lord, Have Mercy, Sanctus / Holy, Holy, Holy, Go Forth into the World, Martin Luther’s Evening Prayer, Support Us All the day Long, and In the Midst of Life We Are in Death, all in the top hits and searches. The devotional booklet The Scriptural Way of the Cross was also in the top ten searches or views.

Because Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei were some of last year’s top hits, I wrote a series on the Western Rite. That series will be the basis of a chapter on the Western Rite in an upcoming book on worship and faith formation.

The chief views continue to be from English speaking countries (U.S., U. K., Canada and Australia), but there is growing usage from the Philippines, India and South Africa.

Links to A Collection of Prayers

WordPress lets me see referrers, that is, other websites that have a link to A Collection of Prayers. The biggest referrers are the Christian spirituality website www.christianity.com and a liturgy website www.liturgies.net, followed by individual ministries, churches, and even some denominational websites.

The past year was more quiet on A Collection of Prayers because of commitments in my work.

The sale of books pays for the website and supports research. Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, Prayers through the Centuries, and The Antiphonary of Bangor were the top sellers in the last year. Prayers Ancient Made Modern is rising in popularity.

In 2024 I published Prayers Ancient Made Modern through Lulu, and also made it available for free in PDF, Word and ePub formats. Because of public domain content, to publish it through Amazon, I had to make it an annotated edition. Footnotes with short biographies of the authors appear the first time that author’s prayers appear in the book. Also, all prayers from Prayers Ancient and Modern have been revised or reworked. This book is getting closer to being my best seller, sometimes equaling the sales of Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church.

The Praying with the Readings series has been further developed electronically. Purchase of the books through Amazon.com includes directions on how to download files through this website, now including HTML pages of links for direct import of the prayers on my denomination’s web application Christian Worship: Service Builder. No more cutting and pasting!

Beyond This Website, Books and Products

  • The Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod used psalm prayers from two of my books (Sarum and Mozarabic) for a worship conference that focused on psalms. These reproducible sheets may also be available in book form in the future.
  • Crossway Publishers is about to release their Sing! hymnal in September 2025, and they are using nine prayers from my books as filler for some white spaces in their book.
  • An Episcopal monastic movement, anamcharafellowship.net, contacted me about using prayers from my Celtic and Sarum books in their breviary (private publication) as part of their daily devotions and liturgy of hours.
  • I’ve also been contacted by Eerdmans about an upcoming prayer anthology, Prayers from the Cloud, that will also include my translation of the Lorica of St. Fursey.
  • Other devotional publishers have also contacted me about using A Collection of Prayers and some of my books as a source. Congregations of many denominations and individuals have contacted me for permission to use prayers from the website or from my books in works for public or private devotions. I am always happy to share my work–which is what A Collection of Prayers is all about.

May God be glorified and our neighbors edified!

WELS District Convention Sale: Praying with the Readings

Now through the month of June, the following resources will be on sale:

Go to our Try now! Buy now! page to see samples of the books.

Each book includes directions for downloading and finding passwords to unlock the downloadable files. Download package now includes an HTML page with links to import prayers directly into Christian Worship: Service Builder with no copying or pasting.

You can view all the books in the series at this link on Amazon.com.

Today a Tomb Holds Him

Times of Israel

Today a tomb holds him who holds the creation in the hollow of his hand; 
    a stone covers him who covered the heavens with glory. 
Life sleeps and hell trembles, and Adam is set free from his bonds. 
Glory to your eternal plan, whereby you have accomplished all things, 
    granting us an eternal Sabbath, your most holy Resurrection from the dead.
What is this sight that we behold? What is this present rest? 
The King of the ages, having fulfilled the plan of salvation through his passion, 
    keeps Sabbath in the tomb, granting us a new Sabbath. 
To him let us cry aloud: Arise, O Lord, judge the earth,
    for measureless is your great mercy and you reign forever.
Come, let us see our Life lying in the tomb, 
    that he may give life to those that in their tombs lie dead. 
Come, let us look today on the Son of Judah as he sleeps, 
    and with the prophet let us cry aloud to him: 
You have lain down, you have slept as a lion; 
    who shall awaken you, O King? 
But of your own free will you rise up, 
    who willingly gives yourself for us. 
O Lord, glory to you!

Source: Mattins, Holy Saturday, Orthodox, Oxford Book of Prayer 653, slightly modified.