Prayer Book

Things Present and Things Past

Things Present and Things Past

During this time of Pandemic, when every week seems to present a need to figure out a new way of doing things, I have discovered anew one of my favorite prayers from Morning Prayer - A Collect for Guidance:

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our
being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by
your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our
life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are
ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.


While this prayer appears for the first time in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (p. 100), it actually comes from a collection of prayers published in 1913, which attributes it to an "ancient collect" from 446 AD. So, it is truly something old and something new.