Commontide

Almighty God, out of the mouths of children you manifest your truth, and by the death of the Holy Innocents at the hands of evil tyrants you show your strength in our weakness: We ask you to mortify all that is evil within us, and so strengthen us by your grace, that we may glorify your holy Name by the innocence of our lives and the constancy of our faith even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who died for us and now lives with you and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

Deus, cuius hodierna die praeconium Innocentes Martyres non loquendo, sed moriendo confessi sunt: omnia in nobis vitiorum mala mortifica; ut fidem tuam, quam lingua nostra loquitur, etiam moribus vita fateatur.

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Original-language source · public domain

BCP 2019, p. 625

Proper Preface

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.

Provenance

Gregorian/Sarum, c.750

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This prayer for the feast of the Holy Innocents (December 28) draws on a Latin oration used in the Roman mass for centuries before the Reformation. Cranmer translated it closely into English for the 1549 Prayer Book, the 1662 revision enriched it with an allusion to Psalm 8, and the ACNA 2019 Prayer Book restores the petition's ancient shape in contemporary language.