Prayer of Saint Chrysostom in Anglican Daily Prayer

The Prayer of Saint Chrysostom is a concluding prayer used in Anglican Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, especially in forms descended from the Book of Common Prayer. It begins by addressing God as the one who has given worshippers grace to make their common supplications together, and it asks that the prayers offered may be fulfilled according to God's will. In Anglican use the prayer is valued for its concise expression of corporate prayer, divine generosity, and trust in the promises of Christ. Its place near the end of the Daily Office gives it a summarizing function: the congregation has heard Scripture, confessed faith, offered intercession, and now commends the whole act of prayer to God.

Text and Liturgical Place

In the classical prayer book offices, the Prayer of Saint Chrysostom normally appears toward the conclusion of Morning and Evening Prayer, shortly before the final grace. In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, it follows the appointed prayers for the monarch, royal family, clergy, and people, and precedes the apostolic blessing from 2 Corinthians 13. This position makes it part of the office's final act of gathering up petitions rather than a separate devotion.

The prayer is brief, but its structure is carefully ordered. It first acknowledges that common prayer itself is a gift of grace. It then recalls Christ's promise to hear those who ask in his name, and finally asks that the desires and petitions of God's servants may be fulfilled in the way most beneficial for them. The prayer does not assume that every request will be granted in the form desired by the worshippers. Instead, it asks for fulfilment in accordance with God's knowledge and saving purpose.

This theological restraint is characteristic of much Anglican liturgy. The prayer encourages confidence without presumption. It also reinforces the public character of the office: the worshippers pray not merely as isolated individuals, but as a gathered body making "common supplications" before God.

Sources and Anglican Reception

The title associates the prayer with John Chrysostom, the fourth-century preacher and bishop of Constantinople. In Anglican books it is commonly printed as "A Prayer of St. Chrysostom," reflecting the traditional attribution known in Western liturgical reception. The prayer's use in Anglican worship also illustrates the prayer book habit of drawing on material from the wider ancient Church while placing it within a reformed vernacular order.

Its reception in Anglicanism has been especially strong because it fits several central Anglican instincts. It is scriptural in tone, ecclesial in outlook, and sober in its petitions. It refers to Christ's promise concerning prayer offered in his name, echoing New Testament teaching without turning the office into a chain of proof-texts. It also sits comfortably within the prayer book's ordered movement from confession and praise to intercession and dismissal.

Because the prayer is short and memorable, it has often been learned by regular worshippers through repetition. In parishes, cathedrals, schools, and households that observe the Daily Office, it can become one of the most familiar texts of prayer book spirituality. Its language forms a bridge between the formal public office and the personal life of prayer, teaching worshippers to ask for what is truly expedient rather than merely preferred.

Theological Themes

The Prayer of Saint Chrysostom contains several themes important to Anglican theology. First, it presents prayer as dependent on grace. The community does not approach God on the basis of its own worthiness, eloquence, or intensity, but because God has enabled the act of common supplication. This accords with the wider prayer book pattern in which confession, absolution, praise, and petition are all grounded in divine mercy.

Second, the prayer emphasizes the communal nature of Christian worship. The phrase "with one accord" has resonance with biblical descriptions of the apostolic Church at prayer. Anglican Daily Prayer is therefore not only a discipline for clergy or a private devotion for individuals; it is the prayer of the Church, even when said by a small group or a single person on behalf of the whole body.

Third, the prayer joins petition to discernment. It asks God to grant requests "as may be most expedient" for the worshippers. This language expresses a theology of providence and sanctification: God's answer to prayer is judged not by immediate satisfaction, but by what leads to true good. The final aim is knowledge of God's truth in this world and life everlasting in the world to come.

For these reasons, the Prayer of Saint Chrysostom remains a compact statement of Anglican liturgical theology. It gathers the Daily Office into a final act of trust, teaching the Church to pray confidently, corporately, and humbly.