Commontide
Proper 26
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, as we live among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
BCP 2019, p. 622
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
One of the oldest prayers in this collection, drawn from the Verona Sacramentary – the earliest surviving Roman liturgical book – and, on the leading reconstruction, composed amid the turmoil of fifth- or sixth-century barbarian invasions. The Verona manuscript records it for Ascension Day; it asks not for escape from ordinary life but for the freedom to live it without being enslaved to what is passing away.