Book of Common Prayer · Churching of Women (1662) · All versions
Rathen Manual: the Blessing of the Purification of a Woman after Childbirth (Scottish) (a 15th-century Scottish parish manual (Advocates Library, Edinburgh), after the Use of Sarum)
English translation by AnglicanGuide from the Latin. Read the Latin edition. Words in [brackets] are supplied or summarise omitted matter.
The Scottish form, before the church door: Psalms 121 and 128, the lesser litany and suffrages, the collect, the sprinkling and the entry "Enter into the temple of the Lord". MacGregor's English translation (p. 42) is missing from the only digitised copy, so this is AnglicanGuide's; Psalms supplied in full.
Source: D. MacGregor (ed.), The Rathen Manual, Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society (1905), transcript p. 5 (Internet Archive). Public domain (translation © AnglicanGuide).
The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth
Before the Church Door
The blessing of the purification of a woman after childbirth, before the door of the church, in this manner.
The Psalms
Psalm. I have lifted up [Levavi]. Psalm. Blessed are all [Beati omnes].
[Psalm 121 (Vulgate 120), supplied in full:] I have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains: from whence help shall come to me.
My help is from the Lord: who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer thy foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keepeth thee.
Behold, he shall neither slumber nor sleep: that keepeth Israel.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy protection upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not burn thee by day: nor the moon by night.
The Lord keepeth thee from all evil: may the Lord keep thy soul.
May the Lord keep thy coming in and thy going out: from henceforth now and for ever.
Glory be to the Father. As it was.
[Psalm 128 (Vulgate 127), supplied in full:] Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
Thy wife as a fruitful vine: on the sides of thy house.
Thy children as olive plants: round about thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed: that feareth the Lord.
May the Lord bless thee out of Sion: and mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
And mayest thou see thy children's children: peace upon Israel.
Glory be to the Father. As it was.
The Lesser Litany and Suffrages
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Our Father. And lead us not.
Save thy handmaid: my God, who putteth her trust in thee.
O Lord, hear my prayer. The Lord be with you. Let us pray.
The Collect
O God, who hast delivered this thy handmaid from the peril of childbirth: grant her to be devout in thy service; that, having faithfully finished her temporal course, she may obtain under the wings of thy mercy everlasting mercy. Through our Lord, etc.
The Entry into the Church
Afterward let him sprinkle her with holy water, receive her by the right hand into the church, and say: Enter into the temple of the Lord, that thou mayest have life eternal, and live for ever and ever. Amen.