Let us pray (in silence) [that the reign of Christ may live in our hearts and come to our world]
pause
Almighty ever-living God,
it is your will to gather up all things
in your beloved one,
reigning in the universe
in the power that is love,
mercifully grant
that the whole of creation,
freed from slavery,
may serve and praise you
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
Prayer after Communion
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, richly bearing the fruit of good works,
may by you be richly rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Feast of Christ the King/the Reign of Christ is obviously a feast day, celebrated on the Sunday. The collect, hence, is not used on the weekdays following. The following collect is suggested for the weekdays following:
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may be prepared]
pause
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, richly bearing the fruit of good works,
may by you be richly rewarded;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
The above is my reworking of collects shared by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians/Anglicans this coming Sunday and the week following. I am very happy to receive comments and also suggestions for improvement.
The Christ the King/Reign of Christ collect is slightly different to other shared collects that I have been working with and commenting on. Those have all had a shared history prior to the Reformation. This one is a more recently produced, and so there is more variety/paraphrasing. I have also paraphrased and adapted. This recent original is:
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui in dilecto Filio tuo, universorum Rege,
omnia instaurare voluisti,
concede propitius,
ut tota creatura, a servitute liberata,
tuae maiestati deserviat ac te sine fine collaudet.
There is an obvious reference to Ephesians 1:10
in dispensationem plenitudinis temporum instaurare omnia in Christo quae in caelis et quae in terra sunt in ipso (as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.)
What has captured my own praying as I prepared my reworking was that apparently the Latin instaurare (repair, restore, erect, make, establish, edit, renew, repeat, start anew or afresh, resume) is related to the Greek word σταυρὸς (stauros – normally translated as “cross”).
This image I have found captivating. God gathering, renewing all things; the cross being the gathering; around Christ the King, enthroned on the cross…
I would love to be able to tightly weave all this into a reworking of the collect… but I am consoled that, without explanation, such images are not even available to most who hear the collect in Latin…
I am reminded of the Carthusian “motto”, Stat crux dum volvitur orbis (The Cross is steady while the world is turning).
I will leave you to unpack the allusions to Christ’s baptism, transfiguration,…
“Serve and praise” can be seen as two dimensions which include all we are called to do.
The “Stir up” collect is an English version of one of the many early Latin Advent collects which began Excita. I count three of them in the new RC Missal for weekdays.
commentary on the Christ the King collect
commentary on the Stir Up collect
nothing to do wit plum puddings 🙂