Faith: prayers in Protestant Christianity

Texts from their published editions. Guidance on what this tradition does at this moment is on the occasion page, and background on the tradition is at /traditions/protestant.

Texts from their published editions

Each text below comes from the edition named under it and was checked twice, independently, before it appeared. Neither check was a person. Where the two disagreed by even one character, the text is not shown here. That is a claim about wording only: these are not selected or endorsed for any particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed them. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it. The full record, including the texts we held back because the two transcriptions disagreed, is at the verification record.

The Collect for Aid against All Perils

A short evening collect in the Order for Evening Prayer in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, translated from the Gelasian tradition into English at the 1549 reform and carried forward unchanged. It is one of three fixed collects said daily at Evensong by clergy and laity alike, and it is the text most often reached for at bedside vigils and at the close of a difficult day.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662Read twice, independently

Lighten our darkness wee beseech thee, O Lord,

and by thy great mercy defend vs from all Perils

and dangers of this night, for the love of thy only

Son, our Saviour Iesus Christ. Amen.

Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source

Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.

This prayer’s own page · How this text was verified

A Prayer of St Chrysostom

A Prayer of St Chrysostom, as it appears in the edition cited below.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662Read twice, independently

Almighty God, who hast given vs grace at this

time with one accord to make our common supplications vnto thee, and do'st promise that when

two or three are gathered together in thy Name,

thou wilt grant their Requests ; fulfill now, O Lord,

the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may

be most expedient for them, granting vs in this

world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to

come life everlasting. Amen.

Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source

Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.

This prayer’s own page · How this text was verified

Psalm 130 (Coverdale)

One of the penitential psalms, appointed in the 1662 Burial of the Dead and widely used in Protestant and Anglican practice at grief, depression and crisis. Anglicans usually meet it in the Coverdale psalter form printed in the Prayer Book rather than in a Bible translation.

English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662Read twice, independently

Out of the deep have I called vnto thee, O Lord : Lord hear my voice.

O Let thine ears consider well : the voice of my complaint

Jf thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is don amiss : O Lord, who may abide it ?

For there is mercy with thee : therefore shalt thou be feared.

I look for the Lord, my soul doth wait for him : in his word is my trust.

My soul fleeth vnto the Lord : before the morning watch, J say, before the morning watch.

O Jsrael, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy : and with him is plenteous redemption.

And he shall redeem Israel : from all his sins.

Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source

Out of copyright in the United States on the basis stated here, and free to reuse there. Please keep the citation with it.

This prayer’s own page · How this text was verified

Content last changed 6 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.

Nothing here has been signed by a reviewer credentialed in this tradition. When that happens, reviewed prayers appear above these, and these stay where they are, as an anthology. How that works.