O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Preface of the Epiphany or of the Transfiguration
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
This prayer marks the Sunday before Lent, when the Gospels recount Christ's Transfiguration on the mountain. Written for a 1928 English prayer book revision and brought into regular Sunday use by the 1979 American BCP, it weaves together the sight of glory on the mountain with Paul's promise that those who behold the Lord's glory are themselves being changed "from glory to glory."