Love what God commands, desire what God promises, in the changes and chances of this world
Let us pray (in silence) [that God will make us one in mind and heart]
pause
Almighty God, you alone can bring order
to our unruly wills and affections;
give us grace to love what you command
and desire what you promise,
that in all the changes and chances
of this uncertain world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found:
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
NZPB p. 640b or BCP (TEC p. 219 see below)
Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
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.
Common Worship (CofE) Third Sunday before Lent
I still remember vividly a conversation many years ago with someone increasingly irritated with the Christian ideas she was exploring. For her, particularly annoying was the idea that whilst the bad was due to her, the good she did was sourced in God. For many people, the goal of life is to be nice; to be good. And God might help us to achieve this goal. Pelagius taught whilst we might do this on our own we could seek some help from God (see ICEL below). This collect above can be used to reflect a quite different orientation – union with God as the goal of life; the constant work of God’s grace achieving this union through God’s commands and promises. This perspective may be quite different to believing one might find “lasting joy in this changing world” – though that too can be understood from a perspective of union with God as one’s goal.
*****
The Roman Catholic ICEL has since 1973 used this translation of the above collect for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Father,
help us to seek the values
that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise,
make us one in mind and heart.
[In fact my wonderful Glenstal Bible Missal has a typo "help us to see the values", in Year B p.946, which also makes perfect sense]. And woe betide me getting into the debate about RC English :-). The original Latin is:
Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis id amare quod præcipis, id desiderare quod promittis, ut inter mundanas varietates ibi nostra fixa sint corda ubi vera sunt gaudia.
which translates more literally as:
O God, who make the minds of the faithful to be of one will, grant to your peoples (grace) to love that which you command and to desire that which you promise, so that, amidst worldly variety, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are found.
The Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries, the Sarum Missal, and previous Prayer Books have all had this for the fourth Sunday "after" Easter.
1549 and 1552 had this as:
ALMIGHTIE God, whiche doest make the myndes of all faythfull men to be of one wil; graunt unto thy people, that they maye love the thyng, whiche thou commaundest, and desyre, that whiche thou doest promes [promise]; that emong the sondery [sundry] and manifold chaunges of the worlde, oure heartes maye surely there bee fixed, whereas true joyes are to be founde; through Christe our Lorde.
1662 changed the relative clause to
"O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men"
this changes the stress from unity to a contrast with loving and desiring what God commands and promises.
The American Book of Common Prayer moves this collect to the Fifth Sunday in Lent. There it includes "among the swift and varied changes of the world".
Almighty God,
you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners:
Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise;
that, among the swift and varied changes of the world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
"Anglican Use" Roman Catholics use this collect also, hence, on Lent 5. Common Worship (Church of England) has it as the collect for the third Sunday before Lent. It is a movable feast.
The original address being "God" lends antiquarian weight to the contemporary desire to have images of God presented which are wider than "Almighty God". Little would be lost and much gained in altering this address.