DAVID ADAMS looks at the history of what’s become known as ‘The Grace Prayer’…
The origins of this prayer, sometimes simply known as ‘The Grace’, go back to the days of the early church.
John Wesley depicted in a statue in Savannah, Georgia. PICTURE: David Dugan (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
It’s based on a prayer of Paul’s which form the closing words of his second letter to the Corinthians. Contained in II Corinthians 13:14, it reads: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (NIV)
It has since been slightly lengthened to include the final words (or a variation thereof) “with us all, evermore” and ends with an Amen.
The prayer, which features references to Jesus, God (the Father) and the Holy Spirit, celebrates the Trinitarian nature of God and addresses three key foundations of the Christian faith – grace, love and fellowship (sometimes translated as communion).
The prayer is still often used to close services, particularly in the Methodist tradition. John Wesley himself, in notes made on the text, said it was “with great reason that this comprehensive and instructive blessing is pronounced at the close of our solemn assemblies” and laments those who try to skip out before it is finished.
“Let us study it more and more, that we may value it proportionably; that we may either deliver or receive it with a becoming reverence, with eyes and hearts lifted up to God, who giveth the blessing out of Sion, and life for evermore.”
