Commontide
O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
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Original-language source · public domain
BCP 2019, p. 599
Preface of Christmas
Because you gave Jesus Christ, your only Son, to be born for us; who, by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary his mother, was made truly man, yet without the stain of sin, that we might be cleansed from sin and given the right to become your children.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
One of the oldest surviving prayers in Western Christianity, this collect has been prayed at the Christmas midnight Mass since at least the eighth century. Absent from every Anglican prayer book until 1979, it was recovered by the US Episcopal revisers and given its historically fitting home on Christmas Eve itself by the ACNA 2019 BCP.