This post is a work in progress. I’m exploring a collect suggested for this coming Sunday – its history and various different developments. And in the process I’ve discovered more about the 2020 publication called “A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa” – including that it was retyped for publication, not simply produced by copy and paste as one might expect.
A collect suggest for this coming Sunday in A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (editions 1989-2005; abbreviated as NZPBHKMA) page 721 for The Thirtieth Ordinary Sunday Year A points to its page 634 (ending provided on page 549):
Almighty God,
you teach us in your word that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with all our heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
This collect has been part of NZ Anglicanism’s texts since at least 1984.
After much research (and the help of Oxford University lecturer, Rev. Dr Benjamin Williams for this post), I have the source of this collect as the Leonine Sacramentary (for one of the September Eucharists) #971:
Deus, qui aeclesiam tuam in dilectione[m] tuae diuinitatis et proximi cuncta seruare cales(t)ia mandata docuisti: da nobis spiritum pacis et gratiae, ut uniuersa familia tua et toto tibi sit corde deuota, et pura sibi uoluntate concordet: per.
A quick translation is:
God, who taught your church to keep all these commandments by loving your divinity and our neighbour: give us the spirit of peace and grace, so that your whole family may be devoted to you with all its heart and united with a pure will: through…
This is close to William Bright’s translation:
O GOD, Who hast taught Thy Church to keep all Thy heavenly commandments by loving Thy Godhead and our neighbour; grant us the spirit of peace and grace, that Thy universal family may be both devoted to Thee with their whole heart, and united to each other with a pure will; through Jesus Christ our
Ancient Collects and Other Prayers – William Bright page 77
The American BCP has this prayer as:
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
BCP (USA) Proper 9 (pp 179 and 230-231)
That is a slightly revised version of the prayer in Parish Prayers edited by Frank Colquhoun #1555.
The Alternative Prayer Book 1984 according to the use of the Church of Ireland has it as:
Heavenly Father, you have taught us that in loving you and our fellow men we keep your commandments: Give us the spirit of grace and peace that we, united to one another in brotherly love, may serve you with our whole heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Church of England (ASB, Pentecost 16; Common Worship Post Communion Trinity 16) An Australian Prayer Book 7th Sunday?? have it as:
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law. Grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
With An Anglican Prayer Book (Southern Africa 1989) using the above, but changing “Almighty God” to “Merciful Lord”.??
There have been other versions of this collect circulating from A Book of Public Worship, The Daily Office by the Joint Liturgical Group (1968) and The Calendar and Lessons of the CofE (1968) Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost #297.
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love fulfils the law. May we love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and may we love our neighbour as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord . ..
Book of Alternative Services (Canada) Proper 13
The Leonine collect did not survive either into the Anglican Book of Common Prayer traditions (1549-1928), nor did it enter the Tridentine Roman Catholic texts. Ancient collects were restored in the post-Vatican II period of liturgical renewal. The above gives some different Anglican variants of using this Leonine collect.
For RCs, Wednesday after the Ascension of the Lord combines part of the collect for Pentecost Friday in the 1962 Missal (a prayer that dates from the 6th century and contained in 42 manuscripts on or around Pentecost Friday):
Da, quaesumus, ecclesiae tuae, misericors deus, ut, sancto spiritu congregata, hostili nullatenus incursione turbetur.
with the final part of the Leonine prayer being discussed above, resulting in:
Ecclésiæ tuæ, miséricors Deus, condéde propítius, ut, Sancto Spíritu congregáta, toto sit corde tibi devóta, et pura voluntáte concórdet.
Which translated as:
God of mercy, unite your Church in the Holy Spirit
International Committee on English in the Liturgy 1969-1974
that we may serve you with all our hearts
and work together with unselfish love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, for ever and ever.
God of infinite mercy,
by the power of the Holy Spirit
gather your Church into one,
that we may dedicate ourselves entirely to you and be one in mind and heart.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Failed 1998 English Missal translation
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
Graciously grant to your Church, O merciful God, that, gathered by the Holy Spirit,
New English Translation 2010
she may be devoted to you with all her heart and united in purity of intent.
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.
Textual Developments A NZ Prayer Book
I have explained, above, that NZ’s use of this collect entered our rites at the 1984 The Liturgy of the Eucharist, presumably from the CofE’s Alternative Service Book of 1980. NZ simply changed “Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son…” to “Almighty God, you teach us in your word…”
The formularies in NZPBHKMA assigned the collect to The 30th Ordinary Sunday Year A and to The Fifteenth Ordinary Sunday Year C.
The 2020 book, also called A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (2020NZPB) has done three things:
- It has changed “neighbours” from plural to singular, “neighbour”. Following textual critical principles, this may simply be a redaction done inadvertently – as it is the singular that is found in Mark 12:30-31, Matthew 22:37-39, and Luke 10:27. But, note well, such a change cannot occur to our formularies without being passed by the “twice-round” General Synod Te Hinota Whanui process.
- What this also highlights is that the text for 2020NZPB is not simply using copy-and-paste technology. Time, (cost?), and energy has been expended in retyping the text. [Is it possible that the digital version of the 1989-2005 editions has been lost? The digital texts were lost in the early days of NZPBHKMA, as also our Church lost control of our own copyright, since then once more back in our Church’s control.] This also helps explain the use of American spelling, “neighbor” for The Sixth Sunday of Easter on page 606 of 2020NZPB! [Something that my computer actually doesn’t easily allow me to do – it automatically changes “neighbor” to the English/NZ “neighbour”, and when I force it to use “neighbor” it leaves a red line underneath it.
- Also notable is that the formulary (NZPBHKMA 1989-2005) does not assign this collect to Easter 6 Year B as 2020NZPB does (page 606). Other options are provided in our Church formularies for Easter 6. This is not one of the options.
I will consider putting this collect into my developing Book of Prayers in Common.
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