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Summary
- In Christian prayer, illumination means God giving understanding, above all of Scripture (Luke 24:45; John 16:13; 2 Corinthians 4:6).
- Presbyterian and other Reformed churches say a “prayer for illumination” before the Bible is read in worship.
- Traditional prayers are quoted in full: the Orthodox Prayer before the Gospel and “O Christ, the true Light” from Hapgood’s 1906 service book, the Catholic “Come, Holy Ghost” with its collect, and the Anglican Advent collect “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.”
- Short prayers cover an unclear decision, study, wisdom, doubt, telling truth from lies, another person’s understanding and a dark season.
- Scripture calls God’s word “a lamp unto my feet” (Psalm 119:105) and warns that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (1 Kings 3:9; Psalm 18:28; 27:1; 36:9; 43:3; 119:18, 105, 130; Proverbs 2:6; Luke 24:45; John 1:9; 8:12; 16:13; 2 Corinthians 4:6; 11:14; Ephesians 1:17–18; 1 John 4:1). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The First Hour, p. 42; The Divine Liturgy, “The Prayer before the Gospel,” pp. 88–89. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Second Sunday in Advent, The Collect, p. 92. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.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. Prayers before Mass, pp. 89–90; “A Prayer before Study or Instructions,” pp. 171–172. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/89/mode/1up
- Presbyterian Mission Agency, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Prayer for Illumination.” https://centernet.pcusa.org/ministries/worship/service-lords-day/service-lords-day-illumination/
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