Let us pray (in silence) [that we may be guided by God’s compassion]
Pause
O God,
direct our hearts
by the action of your mercy,
for without your help
we cannot please you;
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 24 or below. The above is my rendering in my Book of Prayers in Common.
I have, on different Sundays, accidentally produced and assigned different translations of the same traditional collect. I keep forgetting/npot getting round to remedying this.
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]
Meanwhile, if you do not want to use the above collect, what about:
Grant to us, O God, we pray,
the spirit to always think and do what is right,
that we, who cannot exist without you,
may be able to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reflection on this “Grant to us…” collect.
This Sunday is also Holy Cross Day. I would understand the readings for Ordinary 24 to be used, but reference to the Holy Cross might occur in a hymn, song, prayers, homily, etc.
Many, at this time, celebrate Creation Season.
Many people focus on creation during the month of September – a “creation season” concluding on the feast of St Francis on October 4. By this is not meant some tiresome, month-long preaching against evolution, but an examination of how we humans live within this created world, and a recommitment to living appropriately, as God intends. And all this is seen as an essential part of mission, in partnership with others who share concern for “our common home”.
If you have ideas and resources for this month, please put them in the comments below.
This site is committed to the three year lectionary (RC) and its derivative, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Rather than departing from that lectionary, in previous years 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 beyond this site:
Textweek
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Resourcing Preaching Down Under
Commentary on the Collect
The above is part of my attempt to provide a set of collects with history and commentary. It is a prayer prayed by Roman Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians, and others (even though they may pray this on different days).
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.
Cranmer 1549:
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 BCP revisers altered the collect to include the action of the Holy Spirit. This revision has affected contemporary Anglican revisions of this prayer:
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.
A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa page 612:
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
BCP (USA) p.233 Proper 19; Sunday closest to September 14:
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.
Common Worship (CofE) Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity:
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.
ICEL’s earlier translation (1973) had:
Lord, guide us in your gentle mercy, for left to ourselves we cannot do your will.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation:
Almighty God,
let the working of your gentle mercy direct the movement of our hearts, for without your grace
we cannot find favour in your sight.
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.
(Saturday, 4th Week of Lent)
Current ICEL (2011):
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.
