Let us pray (in silence) [that we and the whole church may be kept by God’s love]
Pause
Watch over your church, O God,
with your constant support,
and since without you we will surely fall,
keep us safe from all harm,
and lead us towards all that is good;
through Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above collect is from my Book of Prayers in Common. There is a commentary and reflection on this prayer here – or following below.
Resources beyond this site:
Textweek
Resourcing Preaching Down Under
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Bible Sunday
As well as being the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time or Proper 11, in the Anglican Church of Or (for which our NZ lectionary booklet provides 20 different options for a Eucharist this Sunday, requiring a Gospel reading) this can also be “National Bible Sunday”. For this, the NZ Lectionary booklet provides mother Church of England’s Common Worship (CW) readings for an optional English October Sunday. Common Worship has no status in our Church and, hence, cannot be used to replace our agreed readings for this Sunday (the Lectionary booklet printing these here, notwithstanding). The NZ Anglican Lectionary booklet has been printing these Church of England’s readings since 1998, plenty of time to have come to a NZ agreement on readings for a Bible Sunday if we actually think we need them. [On occasion, the NZ Lectionary booklet has even incorrectly claimed that the Bible Sunday provisions are RCL provisions!]
I will be quite clear about my position: I am against themed Sundays replacing our agreed Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) sequence. Celebrate “National Bible Sunday” by all means. Preach and teach about it, sing hymns and songs about it, give out free Bibles, pray about it, etc., BUT if you cannot do that alongside the three Bible readings and the Psalm provided by our agreed, set RCL, then you should not be leading a Christian community.
I would put money on it that, on average, those churches celebrating “Bible Sunday” this coming Sunday are reading and proclaiming less scripture than that provided by RCL.
Collect for Bible Sunday
Since we are on the topic of valuing the Bible, also long overdue is the restoration of Cranmer’s gem collect, abandoned in A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa:
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may persevere in our growth into God’s life]
Pause
God of inspiration,
you caused all holy scriptures to be written for our instruction,grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of your holy Word,
we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.Book of Prayers in Common Bosco Peters
Collect Commentary and Reflection
The old monk was asked, “what do the monks do here in this monastery?” To this he replied, “We fall, we get up. We fall, we get up. We fall, we get up.” It is a story just as applicable to ordinary Christian life. Another version has it ending with variations of “…one day we fall and we get up in heaven.”
This Gelasian Collect for Trinity 15 in the Sarum Missal read,
Custodi, Domine, quaesumus, ecclesiam tuam propitiatione perpetua: et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxis et ad salutaria dirigatur.
Literally:
Keep, O Lord, we beseech you, your church with perpetual propitiation: and because without you human mortality slips away, may it always be with your help that it may be withdrawn from harm and directed to salvation.
Cranmer translated this for 1549 (Trinity 15) as:
KEPE we beseche thee, O Lorde, thy Churche with thy perpetuall mercye: and because the frailtie of man without thee, cannot but fall: Kepe us ever by thy helpe, and leade us to al thynges profitable to our salvacion; through Jesus Christe our Lorde. Amen.
The “Amen” had been added in 1552. Cranmer, inexplicably, didn’t include translating “abstrahatur a noxis“. The 1662 revisers restored this as “from all things hurtful” :
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
International readers of this page may echo my surprise: I cannot find this collect revised in any Anglican prayer books except New Zealand’s! Do let me know if your province’s revised prayer book has it. Just when the church needs all the prayer it can get – as well as acknowledgment of our frailty!
New Zealand’s version is:
God of grace and goodness,
you know that by reason of our frailty we cannot but fail;
keep us always under your protection
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa 1989-2005 page 571
I have no idea why the NZ Prayer Book turns “fall” into “fail” – my suspicion is that it is a typo! Furthermore, the concept “from all things hurtful”, recovered in 1662, has, again inexplicably, been removed from the NZ version.
Roman Catholics have this collect tucked away for Tuesday in the second week of Lent, where ICEL 1973 has it translated as:
Lord, watch over your Church,
and guide it with your unfailing love.
Protect us from what could harm us
and lead us to what will save us.
Help us always, for without you we are bound to fail.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation this became:
Watch over your Church, Lord God, with unfailing mercy, and since without you humankind will surely fall,
protect us by your grace from every harm
and guide us toward those things that work for our good.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
and currently ICEL’s 2011 version:
Guard your Church, we pray, O Lord, in your unceasing mercy,
and, since without you mortal humanity is sure to fall,
may we be kept by your constant helps from all harm
and directed to all that brings salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(lost again in the collect at the top)
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