Let us pray (in silence) [that we rejoice in the Spirit guiding our lives]
pause
O God,
on this day you taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of your Holy Spirit,
may we, by the same Spirit, be truly wise
and ever rejoice in your consolation;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
My commentary on this collect for Pentecost or see below.
The above is my reworking for my Book of Prayers in Common in which I seek to provide a set of collects with history and commentary.
Christians have been praying this collect for at least 13 centuries. A version of this prayer was in every edition from 1989-2005 of A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa but it was removed from the 2020 edition.
The Day of Pentecost ends a season, the Great Season of Easter. Hence this collect is not used during the week following. We left off on Ordinary Week 6 before the start of Lent, and this is a year with 53 weeks (the Church Year makes provision for a possible 53 weeks, so some years we skip a week when there are only 52), so the collect on weekdays, this year, is that for Ordinary Week 7. The Paschal/Easter candle is now given a place of honour by the font and brought to be placed lit by the coffin at funerals.
The traditional ember days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) that follow the Day of Pentecost are a return to the routine practice of fasting forbidden during the Great Fifty Days.
From at least the second century, the Day of Pentecost has been a time to baptise catechumens who were unable to be baptised on Easter Day. These two primary baptismal days, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost, have expanded to include the feast of the Baptism of Christ, All Saints’ Day (or the Sunday following), and when the bishop is present.
Ideas: for the Day of Pentecost service.
Pentecost Vigil.
External resources:
Textweek
Resourcing Preaching Down Under
Commentary on the Day of Pentecost Collect
In the Gregorian Sacramentary (#526), this is the collect for the Day of Pentecost morning Mass at St Peter’s basilica. It is also present in the earlier Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis, one of the many descended from the Gelasian Sacramentary, and so is probably older. It is the collect for the Day of Pentecost in the Sarum rite and through into many to most Anglican revisions as well as into the 1962 Roman Missal. After Vatican II, it was replaced in the Roman Rite, retaining a place for votive Masses of the Holy Spirit.
Deus, qui hodierna die corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti:
da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de ejus sember consolatione gaudere.
It is slightly different in the 1962 Roman Missal which drops hodierna die.
Cranmer 1459 has it as:
GOD, whiche as upon this daye haste [hast] taughte the heartes of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the lyght of thy holy spirite; graunte us by the same spirite to have a right judgement in al thinges, and evermore to rejoyce in hys holy coumforte; through the merites of Christ Jesus our saviour; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unitie of the same spirite, one God, worlde without ende.
Cranmer added in all things, evermore, and holy, and used “comfort” rather than “consolation” (presumably to connect with the Holy Spirit as “comforter” John 14:26 KJV and the the previous Sunday collect).
The Day of Pentecost is a feast day that ends a season, the 50 Days of the Great Easter Season. The collect for the weekdays following the Day of Pentecost is not this one but the collect for the Sunday in Ordinary Time that this day replaces, just as the weekday readings are those of that Ordinary Week.
The New Zealand Lectionary used to instruct that the collect for the Day of Pentecost be used during the following week until Saturday (as did USA’s BCP 1928). This completely misunderstands the ecumenical, international liturgical renewal which has returned to the insight that the Day of Pentecost ends the Easter Season – it is the culmination of the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season. The instruction undermines the integrity of this renewal. It is not surprising that other Prayer Books (USA, CofE Common Worship) expressly forbids this practice. As I said, the collect for the week following the Day of Pentecost is, of course, the collect of the Ordinary Sunday proper for the date of Pentecost.
The council of Nicaea was astonished that people were kneeling during this season and forbids kneeling during the fifty days of the Easter Season until Pentecost. The traditional ember days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) that follow this Sunday are a return to the routine practice of fasting forbidden during the Great Fifty Days.
From at least the second century, the Day of Pentecost has been a time to baptise catechumens who were unable to be baptised on Easter Day. These two primary baptismal days, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost, have expanded to include the feast of the Baptism of Christ, All Saints’ Day (or the Sunday following), and when the bishop is present.
Just as there is an Easter Vigil, the early sacramentaries, and the current Roman Missal, provides for a Pentecost vigil.
The collect teaches that the Spirit’s light is this day kindled in our hearts, praying that this light might illumine the right course of action in our minds and conscience, and then strengthen our wills to follow God’s leading with joy.
The Day of Pentecost is a facet of the great diamond which is the one movement of God’s self-emptying in creating the universe, becoming incarnate, dying, rising, sending the Spirit to draw us into divinity. The separation into differing feasts is due to our human time-and-space constrained limitation – but it should little surprise us that John’s Gospel has a differing chronology to Luke’s stories for Christ’s ascending and gifting of the Spirit.
Trinitarian collects, addressed to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit encapsulate in a central prayer (as does the Great Thanksgiving/eucharistic prayer) this movement from God into God.
NZPB p. 604b:
Almighty God,
you kindled this day the light of your Spirit
in the hearts of your faithful people;
may we by the same Spirit
have a right judgment in all things,
and evermore rejoice in your love and power;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
Common Worship (CofE):
God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
BCP (USA):
O God,
who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things,
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
[See also Ireland; South Africa; etc]
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation (collect for a votive mass of the Holy Spirit):
O God,
you have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit.
Grant that in the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
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.
2011 ICEL (votive mass of the Holy Spirit):
O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
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.
Collect on the Week 7 Collect
As the Day of Pentecost is a single day of celebration and the conclusion of the Easter Season, the collect is appointed for the day, not the week following. This year, we pick up in Ordinary (“Counting”) Week 7, having left off Ordinary Week 6 on Ash Wednesday to begin the Lent and Easter Seasons.
Let us pray (in silence) [that through our wisdom and love God is revealed]
Pause
Almighty God,
grant that we, meditating always on what is right and true,
may please you in word and deed;
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The original was
Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut, semper rationabilia meditantes, quae tibi sunt placita, et dictis exsequamur et factis.
This was a daily prayer in the Hadrianum (8th Century). In the Gelasian Sacramentary it was used in time of strife. From the eighth century until the Roman Missal of 1962 it moved between the fifth and sixth Sunday after Epiphany. It has been used as the collect in the Gathering rite, as a prayer after Communion, and as a prayer over the people at the end of the Eucharist. I cannot locate it in the Sarum Rite, and nor can I find it in any Anglican revision. It is the current collect for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time in the Roman Rite.
What we pursue is also our motivation for pursuing those things that are pleasing to God. These are the focus of our meditation.
ICEL translation (1973):
Father,
keep before us the wisdom and love
you have revealed in your Son.
Help us to be like him
in word and deed.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation:
Almighty God,
fix our hearts on what is right and true,
that we may please you always
by observing your will in both word and deed.
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 translation (2011):
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, always pondering spiritual things,
we may carry out in both word and deed
that which is pleasing to you.
Mark in Slow Motion
I have been working on a series of reading Mark (this year’s primary Sunday Gospel) in slow motion:
Mark in Slow Motion 1
Mark in Slow Motion 2
Mark in Slow Motion 3
Mark in Slow Motion 4
Mark in Slow Motion 5
Mark in Slow Motion 6
Mark in Slow Motion 7
Mark in Slow Motion 8
Mark in Slow Motion 9
Mark in Slow Motion 10
Mark in Slow Motion 11
Mark in Slow Motion 12
Mark in Slow Motion 13
Mark in Slow Motion 14
Mark in Slow Motion 15
Mark in Slow Motion 16
Mark in Slow Motion 17
Mark in Slow Motion 18
Mark in Slow Motion 19
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