The Collect
I am attempting my own version of the collects, and rework this week’s one as:
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us,
that we may continually be given to good works;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
I worked and reworked it, and kept returning to this, close to the TEC BCP and CofE’s Common Worship version.
It is shared by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and others. Please send me any comments and constructive suggestions about my version of the collect, or include it in the comments section below.
• collect/opening prayer reflection for October 9 and the week following (BCP TEC USA and also the Roman Catholic Church)
• collect/opening prayer reflection for October 9 and the week following (NZPB)
The Readings
scripture readings
textweek resources
Commentary on the Sunday reading from Waiapu Academy
Please add ideas for sermons, hymns, etc.
Hello Bosco
Your two discussions, the one about the liturgical commission, and the one about this week’s prayer prompt me to make a comment, but first I need to tell a story.
When I was little, one of six children, my parents, as all good Christian parents should, led us in prayer before bed. Each day of the week, they would say a collect, which they associated with both that day, and with one of the children. Monday was John’s day, with a particular collect and so on. My slightly better known brother Richard was the third child, so on Wednesday our collect was the Prayer of St Richard of Chichester (my parents’ home diocese). Sunday was Mum and Dad’s own day, and they said all six collects.
As the fourth of the children, my day was Thursday, and ‘my’ collect was the one you have attempted to revise this week. I always remember it in Cranmer’s original form:
Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The prayer has always stayed with me, and has often been useful when leading a service on occasions when a suitably generic, collect is in order. I know this collect!
Which brings me to my point. No Holy Spirit! And as I look through my battered old BCP, the normal formula through the Sundays after Trinity season seems to be “…through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.” Cranmer didn’t seem to feel that the Trinitarian formula was essential, except at special occasions such as Holy Week.
Bosco, I rejoice with you that ‘the presses have been stopped’. And we owe you a real debt of thanks for your persistent and too often lonely voice in that regard. And I support your efforts to rid our prayer book of the excesses of ‘twee-ness’ in some prayers. But I just can’t get excited by this need to force all members of the Trinity into every collect.
You say that it is our ancient tradition, and since you are much more of an expert in these things than I, I’ll take your word for it. But it wasn’t my tradition, and it was not the tradition of Anglicans for much of the past 400 words. That tradition has handed us a beautifully crafted one-sentence prayer, of simple but profound meaning; I don’t see why we need to spoil its form by adding “….who liveth and reigneth etc, etc”, or some modern equivalent onto the end. Somehow it reminds me of a limerick:
There was a young man from Japan
Whose limericks never would scan.
He said, “I don’t get it,
And I really regret it,
But it’s just that I try to cram as many interesting words into the last line as I possibly can.
Thank you so much, Edward, for your wonderful comment. The story of your family is simply delightful – I hope families continue to create such rich rituals.
Your point about the “ending” is important and needs much more thinking through. IMO it is not the ending that makes it Trinitarian. A simpler ending would still be us together or individually praying to God (the First Person of the Trinity) in/as Christ, in the power of the Spirit. It has been suggested to me that “collects” addressed to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit, if they have the full Trinitarian ending, are still Trinitarian collects I am arguing for. I do not think so. But I think that is quite a bigger subject. I also think that it is really helpful if people critique what I am doing – positively offering reflections as you are. I am particularly conscious, if this collection expands, that care will need to be taken as such a collection is reworked in its totality, that it is not just all addressed to “Almighty God” and “Lord”. Similarly, I think there has to be thought given, as you indicate, to whether the endings are always identical week by week, or whether they can and should vary. Blessings.