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Summary
- Eight short prayers open a meeting at work or on a board: for the agenda, a decision, a tense discussion, good listening, new ideas, hard news, thanks and a late meeting.
- The Latin prayer Actiones nostras asks that all work “may always begin from Thee, and through Thee be brought to an end”; the Roman Missal uses it on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.
- Thomas Cranmer translated and expanded the same Latin collect for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer; the 1928 American edition begins “Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings.”
- The 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers gives “Come, Holy Ghost” with a prayer for “a right judgment in all things,” suited to a group about to decide.
- Bible verses to open a meeting include Colossians 3:17, Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 15:22 and Philippians 2:3.
- An opening prayer usually lasts under a minute; at a mixed workplace the leader can ask first and let anyone sit quietly.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 90:17; 127:1; Proverbs 3:5–6; 15:22; 16:3; Ecclesiastes 4:9; Romans 12:18; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:17; James 1:5, 19). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- 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; The Litany of the Saints, “Actiones nostras,” p. 269. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Collects, “Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings,” p. 49. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Catholic Culture. “Actiones Nostras (Lord, May Everything We Do).” Liturgical Year: Prayers (Roman Missal, Thursday after Ash Wednesday; Liturgy of the Hours, Week I, Monday, Morning Prayer). https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1443
- Lloyd, Daniel. “The Coronation of Charles III from the Perspective of Liturgical Studies.” Ex Fonte – Journal of Ecumenical Studies in Liturgy 2 (2023): 363–445, at 381 (Cranmer’s translation of the Sarum collect Actiones nostras). https://doi.org/10.25365/exf-2023-2-17
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