From last Sunday and during this week Catholics and Anglicans (Episcopalians) are praying the same collect/opening prayer. That happens again this coming Sunday and week, and the next, and then again a fortnight later! The Anglican version of the prayer is:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray,
and to give more than we either desire or deserve:
Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask,
except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior;
who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Roman Catholic version of the same prayer is:
Father,
your love for us surpasses all our hopes and desires.
Forgive our failings,
keep us in your peace
and lead us in the way of salvation.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Further comment on this prayer can be found by clicking here.
Let us widen the circle that prays this prayer together this coming weekend and week.
Click here to see the collect some others are using.
Bosco: Just one little quibble…. the title of this (and similar posts) should be “Romans and Anglicans Share Prayer” … Since BOTH are “Catholics” the current title sets an inaccurate dichotomy.
I’m sure you realise, Eric, that I agree with your comment in principal. I know of no one else who has made my ovservation and on the internet information is regularly found by searches – I don’t think a lot of Roman Catholics are doing searches for “Romans” 🙂 and so this post would get very little reading – as it stands about a thousand people will find this post.
I am puzzled on two counts:
1. I can see no similarity between these two prayers apart from that both contain a request for forgiveness. What does it mean to say that they are ‘the same’?
2. 4 October is St Francis’s day and therefore many Catholic and some Anglican churches will be celebrating this feast and, presumably, using a collect for St Francis.
Graham, in response to your puzzles:
1. You clearly did not click through as the post suggested to here, or you would have seen that both prayers are a translation of the same Latin text. That the RC ICEL translation is weaker than the Anglican one, so much so that you do not recognise it as the same, is one of the reasons why the RC church is revising its translations. They will look much more similar in the near future.
2. I will be surprised if any Roman Catholic churches on Sunday use the collect for St Francis as that would be in breach of their regulations that his feast day cannot take precedence over Sundays in Ordinary Time (excepting that his feast is a proper solemnity as principal patron somewhere etc). Anglicans have similar regulations varying from province to province. Please don’t take this as my personal view on this – I am no rubrical fundamentalist 🙂