Life events prayers

Birth, marriage and death have always drawn prayer, and the five texts here mark those passages along with the anniversary of a marriage. Eternal Rest is the oldest. It opens the Requiem Mass, and its Latin first words, Requiem aeternam, are what give that Mass its name. The prayer asks rest and light for the dead rather than consolation for the living. The prayers for a funeral, a wedding and a newborn draw on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer together with wider ecumenical use, and each page names the source its wording follows. These are short texts by design. They are meant to be said aloud at a graveside, at a font, or across a table, and often by someone who does not pray regularly and is doing it now because the occasion asks for it.

Catholic

Eternal Rest Medieval (Latin form); Lasance 1913 (English form)

Anglican

The Collect for All Saints Ancient (Latin origin); 1549 (Cranmer translation); 1662 (current form)

Ecumenical

A Prayer at a Funeral Traditional; BCP 1662 language A Prayer Before a Wedding Traditional; BCP 1662 language A Prayer for a Newborn Traditional; BCP 1662 language A Prayer for a Sick Person 1662 A Prayer for an Anniversary Traditional A Prayer in Sorrow Contemporary traditional form A Prayer of Thanksgiving for a Recovery 1662 Psalm 23 pre-6th century BC The Aaronic Blessing pre-6th century BC