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GracelightDaily Office · 1979 BCP

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O Gracious Light (Phos hilaron)

Contemporary

Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 118

O gracious light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Traditional

Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 118

O gracious Light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

History

O Gracious Light may be the oldest Christian hymn still sung outside the Bible itself. No one knows who wrote it. In the fourth century St. Basil the Great already called it ancient: the people sang it as the lamps were lit at evening. The Orthodox still sing it at Vespers.

English speakers may know it from John Keble’s 1834 translation, “Hail, gladdening Light.” It first appeared in an American prayer book in 1979. It may follow the opening of Evening Prayer, and in An Order of Worship for the Evening it is sung once the candles are lit.

Sources: Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 29.73; Hymnology Archive, “The Lamplighting Hymn”; Book of Common Prayer (1979), Evening Prayer: Rite Two; Book of Common Prayer (1979), An Order of Worship for the Evening.

When it is sung

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