We beseech Thee O Lord pour thy Grace into our hearts, that as we have known the Incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by His cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of His resurrection through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is a translation of a Collect which is to be found in the Sacramentary of Hadrian, dating from the last quarter of the eighth century, though in origin the prayer is probably older. It is the appointed collect for the feast of the Annunciation (25th March) in the Book of Common Prayer, 1662.

This image is taken from an Illuminated manuscript of the Collects for the Sundays and Red-letter festivals of the church year, according to the Calendar of that prayer book. In the manuscript, each collect is written in black ink decorated with red, and with illustrated capitals and borders. Some of the borders contain Biblical scenes, or images of New Testament saints.

The manuscript was given to St Davids Cathedral in 1928 by Miss Dorothy Ellis, who noted that ‘the book was made by my English great-aunts who were Puseyites of the forties and fifties’. Unfortunately, Miss Ellis did not name her relatives, so the artists are at present anonymous.