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!

Watch Over All Your People

Gracious God and Father,
watch over all your people,
those who struggle with doubts,
those who struggle with the labors of life,
those who sometimes struggle as they seek you.
Calm our hearts with your Word,
and with your dear Son’s promise,
“I will give you rest.”
Pour out your abundant blessings on us,
give us the assurance of your love in Jesus Christ.
Give us confidence as we face the challenges ahead.
Give us health of body and spirit,
and blessings in all things;
through your Son who gave himself for us
so that we could be his,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Paul C. Stratman, April 27, 2024, from an online request.

Us / we may be substituted with a name or names, him / her or they / them.

Give Us Faith to Overcome Our Weakness

Lord God, heavenly Father,
in your special love and mercy
you gave us your Son
who became truly human
and died on the cross for us.
Pour your Holy Spirit into our hearts
that we may put all our trust in him,
just as the Centurion believed
that Christ would help his sick servant,
may we be assured
of the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.
We have your Word:
“Whoever believes in me will never see death.”
Dear Father in heaven,
grant that we may believe with no doubts in our hearts,
and remain in the faith until our last hour.

Almighty and eternal God,
mercifully look on our weaknesses,
and in all dangers and needs
defend us with your power against our enemies;
through Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one true God, now and forever.

Source: Veit Dietrich, d. 1549, Epiphany 3.

Source of this version: The Collects of Veit Dietrich in Contemporary English © 2016 Paul C. Stratman

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 LicensePlease contact for permission for any commercial use.

Crown the Faith of Those Who Cling to You

O God,
Father of your only Son,
you dwell in heaven
and you scoff at those
who rise against your Anointed One.
Grant us special grace
that we may not yield to adversities,
that the unbelief of those who do not know you
may be done away with,
and the faith of those who cling to you
may be crowned.

Source: Mozarabic Rite, 7th Century

Source of this version: Oremus, edited by Paul Zeller Strodach

 

Mozarabic, ad.

Help Us Patiently Wait for Your Light

Merciful Lord,
Comforter and Teacher of your faithful people,
increase in your Church the desires you have given.
Strengthen the hearts of those who hope in you,
and show them the depth of your promises.
Lead all your adopted children to see with the eyes of faith,
and help them wait patiently  for the light that is now hidden;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Source: Ambrosian, freely modified from  Ancient Collects, ed. William Bright, p. 76.4.

 

AncientCollectsAd

The Light of the World

antifonariodelec3b3n1Hear us, never-failing Light,
Lord our God, source of light,
light of the angels, principalities, powers
and all intelligent beings.
You have created the light for your saints.
May our souls be your lamps
kindled and illuminated by you.
May we shine and burn with the truth
and never go out in darkness and ashes.
May the gloom of sins be cleared away
and the light of constant faith abide within us.
Amen.

Source: Mozarabic Rite

Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers Ancient and Modern
by Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston, Little Brown, 1914, p. 62 #1

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

 

Mozarabic, ad.