Proper 25


Let us pray (in silence) [that God's love strengthen us to do God's will]

pause

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity;
and, that we may obtain what you promise,
make us love what you command;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.      

The Book of Common Prayer (TEC) p.235

This translates the Latin original we have been praying for over a thousand years:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei, spei, et caritatis augmentum:
et ut mereamur assequi quod promittis, fac nos amare quod praecipis.

ICEL 1973 translates this for Roman Catholics as

Almighty and ever-living God,
strengthen our faith, hope, and love.
May we do with loving hearts what you ask of us and come to share the life you promise.
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.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer translated this for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer as:
ALMIGHTYE and everlastyng God, geve unto us the increase of faythe, hope, and charitie; and that we may obteine that whiche thou doest promise; make us to love that whiche thou doest commaunde, through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Once again Episcopalians (Anglicans) and Roman Catholics now pray the same prayer on the same day. It was used at Vespers in the Leonine sacramentary (#598). The Gelasian sacramentary had sixteen Sunday Masses (#1209) where this is the initial prayer of the eighth mass. By the Gregorian supplement this has settled as the collect (#1168) for the fourteenth Sunday after the Pentecost octave - in other words Trinity XIV where the Sarum missal and English prayer books from 1549-1928 had it. Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Missals had it for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. After Vatican II Roman Catholics pray this on the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Episcopalians pray it on the equivalent Proper 25 - the Sunday closest to October 26.

The Latin has God's commands as the objects of faith, and God's promises the objects of hope. It has "that we may be worthy to obtain what you promise" - Cranmer has removed any concept of merit. The original was clear that our being worthy is dependent on our loving which is dependent on God's action.

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