The Gelasian prayers for the gift of a child

Three of the seven prayers in an old Roman Mass for a woman with no child, copied about AD 750. They recall Isaac’s prayer for Rebekah and Mary’s motherhood.

Picture: Jan Victors, Hannah Praying in the Temple, 1643

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

O God, when Your servant Isaac prayed to You because his wife was childless,You were pleased to hear him and to let Rebekah conceive.In Your kindness, hear the prayers of Your servant (name) for a child,so that the hope they rested on Your mercymay be made firm by the gift they asked of You.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, You look with tender pity on the anxiety of those who cannot conceive,and even when they have given up hope, You wonderfully make them fruitful.Grant in Your kindness that Your servant (name),through the prayers of Your servant Gregory,may receive the child they cannot have by their own strength.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Almighty, everlasting God, You did not withhold a mother’s loveeven from the holy and ever-virgin Mary, who gave birth to our Redeemer.Grant in Your kindness that, through the prayers of the Mother of God,Your servant (name) may be granted to become a mother.Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

O God, when Your servant Isaac prayed to You because his wife was childless,You were pleased to hear him and to let Rebekah conceive.In Your kindness, hear me, Your servant, as I pray for a child,so that the hope I rested on Your mercymay be made firm by the gift I asked of You.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, You look with tender pity on the anxiety of those who cannot conceive,and even when they have given up hope, You wonderfully make them fruitful.Grant in Your kindness that I, Your servant,through the prayers of Your servant Gregory,may receive the child I cannot have by my own strength.Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Almighty, everlasting God, You did not withhold a mother’s loveeven from the holy and ever-virgin Mary, who gave birth to our Redeemer.Grant in Your kindness that, through the prayers of the Mother of God,I, Your servant, may be granted to become a mother.Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from our own English from the Latin of H. A. Wilson’s 1894 edition. How the wording is made.

When it is said

In the old Roman rite a priest said these prayers at a Mass for a woman who had no child, naming her where the book leaves a blank.

A husband might pray them for his wife, or a wife for herself.

Where it comes from

No author known

A Mass for a woman with no child

The Gelasian Sacramentary is a service book of the Church of Rome. Its one surviving copy was made near Paris about AD 750, from older Roman material. Its Mass for women who have no child has seven prayers, and six of them recall a mother in the Bible. This page gives three of the seven: the second, the sixth and the seventh.

H. A. Wilson (ed.), The Gelasian Sacramentary (1894), pages 269 to 270; The Cult of Saints database, University of Oxford, E07005

A mother’s heart

Later in the same Mass the priest prays over the bread and wine for the woman. He asks God to take away her grief at having no child and to bless her to conceive, because God has set the love of children deepest of all in a mother’s heart.

H. A. Wilson (ed.), The Gelasian Sacramentary (1894), page 270

What the words mean

Who is Gregory?

The second prayer on this page asks for a child “through the prayers of Your servant Gregory” but does not say which Gregory. The book’s editor in 1894 thought it most likely meant St Gregory the Great, though he could not be quite certain.

H. A. Wilson (ed.), The Gelasian Sacramentary (1894), introduction

The Scripture in it

Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

Genesis 25:21 Echoed Isaac prayed for his wife Rebekah, who was barren, and the Lord heard him.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Latin

Deus, qui famulum tuum Isaac pro sterilitate coniugii sui te deprecantem exaudire, et conceptum Rebeccae donare dignatus es, preces famulae tuae N. pro percipienda prole benignus exaudi; ut firmamentum spei, quod in tua misericordia posuit, ei ex percepto munere quod postulat confirmetur. Per.

Deus, qui anxietate sterilium pie respiciens, in eis fecunditatem etiam in sua desperatione mirabiliter operaris, concede propitius ut famula tua N. de percipienda sobole, quod per se non valet, servi tui Gregorii mereatur precibus obtinere. Per.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui maternum affectum nec in ipsa sacra semper virgine Maria, quae Redemptorem nostrum genuit, denegasti, concede propitius ut eiusdem Dei genitricis precibus famula tua N. esse genitrix mereatur. Per.

From the Gelasian Sacramentary (Vatican, Reginensis 316), ed. H. A. Wilson (Oxford, 1894), the Mass for women with no child (Book III, LIV), its second, sixth and seventh prayers.

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