The world, the flesh, the devil
Let us pray (in silence) [that we will grow in our baptismal life]
pause
Almighty God,
give your people grace to withstand
the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you,
the only true God;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
NZPB p. 575a
In the darkness Quintus pauses. Behind him a hint of pink begins to paint the dawn. He faces West. The darkness. This is what he renounces; the darkness; the evil influences and powers that rebel against God. Slowly, purposefully, he turns, trusting in Christ's victory which brings forgiveness, freedom and life. Quintus turns to the now rising sun, turning to Christ his way, his truth, his life. He begins his descent into the pool of baptism.
The collect speaks of a fleeing and of a following.
The Gelasian Sacramentary had for the Sunday after the [Northern Hemisphere] Autumn Ember days:
Da, quaesumus, Domine, populo tuo diabolica vitare contagia: et te solum Deum pura mente sectari.
[Grant unto your people, O Lord, to withstand the temptations of the devil: and pure in heart, to follow you, who alone are their God.]
Which for the 1549 BCP, Cranmer had as:
LORDE we beseche thee, graunt thy people grace to avoyde the infeccions of the Devil, and with pure harte and mynde to folowe thee the onelye God; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
Note, as Cranmer also did for his Ascension Day collect, he translated mente as "heart and mind" indicating that there is more than a mere mental process going on in following.
There were four groups of Ember Days approximately equally spaced around the year. The Autumn [Southern Hemisphere Spring] ones were Wednesday, Friday, Saturday following Holy Cross Day (September 14). Most liturgical renewal has abandoned them. NZPB has weekdays following the Day of Pentecost and the week preceding St Andrew's Day as Ember Days for the ministry of the church and ordinands. Such prayer and fasting at the start of Spring as well may still commend itself to some.
The Gelasian collect in the BCP, as in the Sarum Missal, was the collect for Trinity 18. In 1662 its penitential association with Ember Days was lost in a revision that echoed the then baptism rite:
LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Conceptually, this is little changed in NZPB above. One wonders what most make of the world and the flesh. The devil has conscientiously not made an appearance at a New Zealand Anglican baptism rite since 1970. Were the Prayer Book revisers less discriminatory in their work on the collects?
Whatever the language and metaphors, the Christian life retains its original baptismal struggle experienced by Quintus - to flee and to follow.
*****
Restated:
Let us pray [that we will grow in our baptismal life]
Grant to us your people, O God,
grace to withstand all evil influences
and powers that rebel against you
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you,
the only true God;
through Jesus, the Christ, our Saviour
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever. Amen