Grace, The

” Prayer based on 2 Cor 13:13, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (RSV). It is named for the opening words of the prayer. The words of St. Paul's trinitarian benediction are modified in the Prayer Book version, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore” (BCP, p. 102). The grace was printed at the conclusion of the Daily Offices and the litany in the 1559 Prayer Book. It continues to be the first of the concluding sentences in Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (BCP, pp. 59, 72, 102, 126). Although the grace was dropped from the litany in the 1928 BCP, it appears as an option at the end of the litany in the 1979 BCP (p. 154). It concludes the Prayer Book service for Holy Saturday (p. 283). The grace also introduces the Sursum corda at the beginning of the Great Thanksgiving, Form 2, in An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist (p. 404). When A Penitential Order is used as a separate service, it may be concluded with the grace (p. 353). Similarly, the eucharistic liturgy of the word may be used without communion and conclude with the Lord's Prayer and the grace (p. 407). A musical setting of the grace is at S 67 in The Hymnal 1982 Accompaniment Edition, Vol. 1, at the end of the music for the Great Litany.