16th Century – Page 19 – A Collection of Prayers

To You, O Jesus

To you, O Jesus, I direct my eyes;
to you my hands, to you my humble knees;
to you my heart shall offer sacrifice;
to you my thoughts, who my thoughts only sees;
to you myself–myself and all I give;
to you I die; to you I only live.

Source: Sir Walter Raleigh

Source of this version: Modified from Christus redemptor: the life, character, and teachings of … Jesus Christ … from various authors, p. 263

May We Not Forget Eternal Things

Lord God, heavenly Father,
rule and govern our hearts by your Holy Spirit,
that we may not, like the rich man,
hear your Word in vain
and become so devoted to worldly things
that we forget eternal things,
but that we serve those who are in need
and not defile ourselves with carousing and pride.
Keep us from despair
when we experience trials and misfortunes
and move us to trust wholly in your fatherly help and grace,
so that in faith and Christian patience
we may overcome all things;
through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one true God, now and forever.
Amen.

Source: Veit Dietrich, d. 1549, Trinity 1

This revision/translation of The Collects of Veit Dietrich is licensed by Paul C. Stratman under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Please contact for permission for any commercial use.

Give Us Grace and Faith While We Await the Resurrection

Almighty God,
through the death of your Son
you have destroyed the power of sin and death
and through his resurrection
have restored innocence and eternal life
so that we would be redeemed
from the power of the devil.
Through the same power of the Resurrection,
raise our mortal bodies
when you awaken the dead.
Grant us your grace
that we may steadfastly believe this
with all our hearts,
and await the joyful resurrection of our bodies
with all your blessed ones;
through the same Jesus Christ,
your Son, our Lord.
Amen.

This prayer is from Prayers from the Evangelical-Lutheran Heritage, available from Amazon.com, and also available for Amazon Kindle. It is a collection of prayers from the history of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church from Luther to Loehe. The collection includes prayers by Johannes Bugenhagen, Georg C. Dieffenbach, Veit Dietrich, Matthias Flacius, Wilhelm Loehe, Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Joachim Mynsinger, Johann G. Olearius, Johann Jacob Rambach, and the early agendas and prayer books of the Austrian, Brunswick, Hamburg, Lueneberg, Norwegian, Nuremberg, Pomeranian, Riga, Russian, Saxon, Schleswig-Holstein, and Swedish Evangelical-Lutheran churches.

Preserve Us from Greed

Lord God, heavenly Father,
you generously give us
your blessing and our daily bread.
Preserve us from greed and awaken our hearts
that we willingly share your blessed gifts
with our neighbors in need.
Make us faithful stewards of your gifts
and be gracious to us when our time of stewardship is done
and we come before your judgment;
through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one true God, now and forever.
Amen.

Source: Veit Dietrich, d. 1549

Fix Our Hearts with Steadfast Faith

Merciful and eternal God,
you did not spare your only Son
but gave him up for us all
that he might bear our sins on the cross.
Grant that our hearts may be so fixed
with steadfast faith in him
that we may not fear any trouble;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Saxon Agenda 1540, LXII (B)

The Purpose of the Cross

Lord God, heavenly Father,
in your fatherly and infinite wisdom
you place your children on earth under the cross
and we endure many troubles.
Through these you guard us against sins
and lead us to believe, hope and pray.
Have mercy on us,
and hear our prayers in every affliction and need,
and send us your gracious help
so that we may know your grace and fatherly goodness,
and praise and glorify you
with all your saints in eternity,
for you, with your Son and the Holy Spirit
alone are the eternal God.
Amen.

Source: Veit Dietrich, d. 1549, Epiphany 4

The Collects of Veit Dietrich

veit-dietrich Veit Dietrich was a younger associate of Martin Luther, sometimes serving as Luther’s secretary in the Table Talk and in some of the notes connected with Luther’s translation of the Bible. Dietrich was one of many theologians in the early Reformation who wrote volumes to educate both laity and clergy. He wrote a book Summaria Christlicher Lehr (1548) which was a devotional commentary on the Sunday lessons in the Historic Lectionary. After the summaries of the lessons for a certain day, he had a prayer based on the Gospel for the day. These prayers or collects were similar to the classic collects (now often called the ‘prayer of the day’ which is read before the lessons) only they were longer, more meditative, somewhat didactic (‘teachy’), and more closely connected to the thematic content of the Gospel.

Veit Dietrich’s collects appeared in English translation in The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) and in slightly updated English in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996). There were a few prayers in Summaria… that did not appear in either book. They have been newly translated for this work.

The Collects of Veit Dietrich in Contemporary English, prepared for A Collection of Prayers is available here: Veit Dietrich Collects CE. The pdf now has a cross-reference thematic use with the Christian Worship Lectionary (1993).

And also at Academia.edu here: https://www.academia.edu/27888007/The_Collects_of_Veit_Dietrich

The Purpose of Crosses

May the almighty and gracious God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
forgive us all our sins,
help us to live in daily repentance,
and grant that whatever crosses he sends
serve to lead us to despise and avoid what is evil
and love and practice what is good,
until we depart this life and enter eternal life.
Amen.

Translation of “Der allmaechtige und guetige Gott” by Paul C. Stratman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Please contact for any commercial usage.

Original in German:

Der allmaechtige und guetige Gott, der Vater unsers Herrn Jesus Christi, vergebe uns alle unsere Suende; helfe, dass wir in taeglicher Busse leben, und verleihe, dass uns das liebe Kreuz diene, dazu er uns solchest zuschickt, dass wir das Boese neiden und meiden, und das Gute lieben und ueben, bis zum Ausgang aus diesem zeitlichen, und zum Eingang in jenes ewige Leben. Amen.

Purify, Instruct and Console

missale_romanum_glagolitice Almighty everlasting God,
do not rebuke us in your anger,
but purify, instruct,
and console us with your boundless mercy,
and consider the weakness of our mortal nature.
Just as we are not able to please you without you,
we may be holy by your grace alone;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Gregorian Rite

Source of this version: Modified from A Book of Prayers: Together with Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern, Ed. Charles Leffingwell, Morehouse Publishing Company, 1921, p. 94 #3

For Right Living

Lord,
give us a spirit
to always think and do what is right.
Since we cannot do anything good without you,
empower us to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Leonine Sacramentary.

Original in Latin:

Largire nobis, quaesumus, Domine, semper spiritum cogitandi quae recta sunt, propitius et agendi: ut, qui sine te esse non possumus, secundum te vivere valeamus.

This prayer also appears in Die pommersche Kirchen-Ordnung und Agenda, p. 298.

O Herr, wir bltten, gib uns allezeit gnadiglich einen Geist zu gedenken und zu thun, was recht ist, auf daß wir, die wir ohne dich nicht sei können, nach dir auch leben mögen, durch Jesum Christum unsern Herrn, der mit dir in vereinigter Gottheit des heiligen Geistes lebet und regieret immer und ewiglich, Amen.