Commontide
Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light; that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Original-language source · public domain
BCP 2019, p. 625
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.
This prayer for the feast of Saint John the Evangelist (December 27) is one of the oldest collects in Anglican worship, drawn from the Roman sacramentary tradition and carried into Cranmer's first prayer book in 1549. Its central image – the Church illumined by John's teaching so that she walks in the light and arrives at eternal life – directly echoes the light-theology that saturates John's Gospel and First Letter.