Let us pray (in silence) [that we may love God in our hearts and in our actions]
Pause
O God,
the joy of union with you is your gift;
may your compassion direct our hearts;
through Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above ancient prayer is used by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians/Anglicans and others. It has a long, shared history which you can find here with commentary and reflection: Ordinary 23 or see below. This is in my Book of Prayers in Common.
For Aotearoa New Zealand – here are two Maori versions:
E TE Atua, ki te kahore koe, e kore e taea e matou te mea it au e pai ai: Kia aroha mai koe, tukua mai tou Wairua Tapu hei whakatika i nga whakaaro katoa a o matou ngakau; ko Ihu Karaiti hoki to matou Ariki. Amine. [Te Pukapuka o Nga Inoi – The Book of Common Prayer in Maori]
E te Atua kaha rawa,
nāu mātou i karanga ki te mahi māu,
engari ki te kāhore tōu aroha
e kore rawa mātou e tau ki te whakapai i a koe;
tukua mai tōu Wairua Tapu
hei whakatika i te whakahaere a ō mātou manawa;
Ko Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Ariki.
Āmine. [NZPB/HKMA 2024 p628]
Many people focus on creation during the month of September – a “creation season” concluding on the feast of St Francis on October 4.
This site is committed to the three year lectionary (RC) and its derivative, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Rather than departing from that lectionary, resources have been provided on this site for a “creation reading” of our shared biblical texts. This approach takes seriously the claim that our relationship with creation is a thread throughout the Bible.
A creation reading of the lectionary for the Sunday between 4 and 10 September:
The First Testament readings and psalms has creation like clay in the potter’s hand. We are known and formed – my inward parts – you knit me together in my mother’s womb. They speak of land, heaven, and earth, life and death, trees planted by streams of water. The gospel speaks of calculating the cost and simplifying our lifestyle.
Resources off this site:
Textweek
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Commentary on the Collect
Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.
The collect is found in the Gelasian Sacramentary, and in the Sarum rite for Trinity 19. It is used in Anglican Churches: TEC; CofE; Ireland; Canada; Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia… by Roman Catholicism…
In my reworking (above), I thought that the common Anglican translation, “without you we are not able to please you”, makes little contemporary sense. It appears like saying, “Bob, if you didn’t exist, I couldn’t be your friend – without you, I couldn’t be with you!” Roman Catholicism’s ICEL makes it “without your grace we cannot find favour in your sight.” I think “the joy of union with you is your gift” expresses the idea in an attractive, contemporary way.
1549 Book of Common Prayer:
O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
ICEL 1973:
Lord, guide us in your gentle mercy, for left to ourselves we cannot do your will.
Current ICEL
May the working of your mercy, O Lord, we pray, direct our hearts aright, for without your grace we cannot find favor in your sight.
new translation Saturday Lent 4
Almighty God,
you have called us to serve you,
yet without your grace
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
NZPB p. 612b
O God,
because without you we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things
direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Chrsit our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
BCP (USA) p.233
O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Common Worship (CofE) Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
This collect is for the fourteenth of the sixteen Sunday masses in the Gelasian sacramentary (#1230). For the Gregorian (effectively) (#1183), Sarum and 1549-1928 Prayer Books it is the collect for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Dirigat corda nostra quaesumus Domine tuae miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus sancti Deus. Per omnia secula seculorum, Amen.
[Literally: Direct our hearts, Lord, we beseech you, by the working of your mercy, for without you we are not able to please you.” 1549 has:
O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
The 1662 revisers changed the working of God’s mercy to the Holy Spirit and added the word “rule”. NZ added the concept “you have called us to serve you”.
There is much in this collect that bears reflection: the purpose of life is not to “be good” but to please God. God is the goal and the means, the destination and the journey.
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