Let us pray (in silence) [that we may love God in all things and above all things]
Pause
God, [or Gracious God or Living and gracious God]
you have prepared for those who love you
good things which no eye can see,
and which surpass our understanding;
pour into our hearts such longing for you,
that we,
loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
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 on the same day. It has a long, shared history which you can find here: Ordinary 20. The above is my rendering in my Book of Prayers in Common.
Lectionary Readings Introduction
This site provides something different: many sites and books provide a brief summary of the reading – so that people read out or have in their pew sheet an outline of what they are about to hear. They are told beforehand what to expect. Does this not limit what they hear the Spirit address them? This site provides something different – often one cannot appreciate what is being read because there is no context provided. This site provides the context, the frame of the reading about to be heard. It could be used as an introduction, printed on a pew sheet (acknowledged, of course), or adapted in other ways.
Genesis 45:1-15
This is a weaving of J and E sources, hence one notices some repetition. Themes of knowing and deceiving will now be resolved.
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Whilst increasingly contemporary scholarship seeks to look at the final whole product of the book of Isaiah, since 1892 many scholars have accepted that chapter 56 begins a “Third” Isaiah. Isaiah was the eighth century prophet, who was followed by “Second” Isaiah during the sixth century exile. Around 520 BC Third Isaiah preached at the same time as Haggai and Zecharaiah.
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
The focus of Romans 1-8 has been including non-Hebrews into the heritage of God. The non-Hebrew disobedience was met with God’s mercy – now Paul applies similar logic to Hebrew disobedience.
Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28
Jesus’ mission has been directed not to Samaritans and Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-6). Jesus is met by a Canaanite (non-Hebrew) woman in non-Hebrew territory (Tyre and Sidon). Jesus follows the customs of his culture. He insults the woman, but she is the only woman recorded in the gospels who matches Jesus’ normally sharp wit.
Further resources (off this site):
TextWeek
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Preaching resources Down Under
Reflection on the Collect
The above is my attempt to provide a set of collects with history and commentary. It is a prayer prayed by Roman Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians, and others – and on the same day.
There is in Christianity, as in most religious traditions, a tendency towards separation from the world – fuga mundi, of contempt for the world – contemptus mundi. This collect could be read in this way, and the title of a God who mercifully saves us, withdraws us from this evil world, might encourage this tendency. But at its heart this is a denial of the creation and incarnation. The mystery we call “God” is mediated through creation. We live in a sacramental universe. Even silence – that most beloved of the apophatic way* – is a creature.
Healthy, authentic Christian spirituality finds God in creation and loves and serves God in creation. The bidding I have added highlights this reading of the collect and is grounded in the very history of this collect.
In the Gelasian Sacramentary (1178) this was the collect for the first of the Sunday masses. In the Gregorian Sacramentary (1144), the Sarum Missal, and BCP 1549 – 1928 this was the collect for Trinity 6. The Latin was:
Deus, qui diligentibus Te bona invisibilia praeparasti, infussde cordibus nostris tui amoris affectum; ut Te in omnibus et super omnia diligentes, promissiones tuas, quae omne desiderium superant, consquamur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, etc.
It is noticeable that this has Te in omnibus et super omnia diligentes, “loving you in all things and above all things.” Also, English is very sloppy in its use of “love” where other languages are more precise. Here, the Latin is more in the vein of “you have prepared for those who choose you… pour into our hearts the affect of emotional love, that, choosing you in and above all things…”
One will note here how Cranmer translated “invisible good things” and his dropping of “above all things”:
GOD, whiche haste prepared to them that love thee suche good thynges as passe all mannes understanding; Powre into our hartes such love toward thee, that we lovyng thee in al thinges, may obteine thy promises, whiche excede all that we canne desyre; Through Jesus Christe our Lorde.
The 1662 reformers changed “in all things” to “above all things”. The Daily Office by the Joint Liturgical Group (1968) and Modern Collects restored it to “loving you in all and above all”. CofE’s Common Worship and BCP(USA) both restored “in all things and above all things”. USA also removed “Merciful” and hence is not only closest to the original, but furthest from the tendencies we were guarding against at the start of this reflection. It has the collect as:
O God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as surpass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love towards you,
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
New Zealand’s Anglican Prayer Book has it as:
Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding;
pour into our hearts such love towards you
that, loving you above all else,
we may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
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. 627c
It is used in the Roman Catholic Church as the collect for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
ICEL’s earlier translation (1973) had:
God our Father,
may we love you in all things and above all things
and reach the joy you have prepared for us
beyond all our imagining.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation:
For those who love you, Lord,
you have prepared blessings which no eye has seen; fill our hearts with longing for you,
that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may obtain your promises,
which exceed every heart’s desire.
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.
Current ICEL (2011):
O God, who have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire.
See also 1 Cor 2:9 and 1 John 4:19
*kataphatic spirituality, common in the West, sees God is “like this but more” – all loving, all mighty,…
apophatic spirituality, common in the East, sees God is “not like this” – immortal, invisible, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.
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image source: The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter; Bazzi Rahib, Ilyas Basim Khuri 1684
