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Summary
- Prayers for one’s own birthday give thanks for the past year, ask forgiveness, ask guidance for the year ahead and bring a hope or wish to God.
- Short prayers cover the birthday of a child, a friend, a husband or wife and an aging parent, with a grace for the birthday meal.
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer has a prayer “For a Birthday” (pp. 597–598); the Orthodox service of thanksgiving and a Catholic prayer to one’s patron saint are also quoted.
- The Bible records only two birthday feasts, Pharaoh’s (Genesis 40:20) and Herod’s (Mark 6:21); Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays, while most other Christians do.
- Psalm 139:13–14 and Jeremiah 1:5 describe each person’s birth as God’s work.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 40:20; Numbers 6:24–26; Job 3:1–3; 38:1; Psalm 31:15; 37:4; 71:6; 90:12; 139:13–14; Ecclesiastes 7:1; Isaiah 46:4; Jeremiah 1:5; Mark 6:21; Luke 2:52). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Family Prayer, “For a Birthday,” pp. 597–598. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. “Imperial Feasts,” p. xiv; “A Service of Thanksgiving for an Answer to Prayer, and for Every Favour from God,” pp. 512–516. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Prayer to one’s patron saint, p. 55. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Why Don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses Celebrate Birthdays?” JW.ORG. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/birthdays/
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