Let us pray (in silence) [that we and the whole church may be kept by God’s love]
Pause
Watch over your church, O God,
with your constant support,
and since without you we will surely fall,
keep us safe from all harm,
and lead us towards all that is good;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The old monk was asked, “what do the monks do here in this monastery?” To this he replied, “We fall, we get up. We fall, we get up. We fall, we get up.” It is a story just as applicable to ordinary Christian life. Another version has it ending with variations of “…one day we fall and we get up in heaven.”
This Gelasian Collect for Trinity 15 in the Sarum Missal read,
Custodi, Domine, quaesumus, ecclesiam tuam propitiatione perpetua: et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxis et ad salutaria dirigatur.
Literally:
Keep, O Lord, we beseech you, your church with perpetual propitiation: and because without you human mortality slips away, may it always be with your help that it may be withdrawn from harm and directed to salvation.
Cranmer translated this for 1549 (Trinity 15) as:
KEPE we beseche thee, O Lorde, thy Churche with thy perpetuall mercye: and because the frailtie of man without thee, cannot but fall: Kepe us ever by thy helpe, and leade us to al thynges profitable to our salvacion; through Jesus Christe our Lorde. Amen.
The “Amen” had been added in 1552. Cranmer, inexplicably, didn’t include translating “abstrahatur a noxis“. The 1662 revisers restored this as “from all things hurtful” :
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
International readers of this page may echo my surprise: I cannot find this collect revised in any Anglican prayer books except New Zealand’s! Do let me know if your province’s revised prayer book has it. Just when the church needs all the prayer it can get – as well as acknowledgment of our frailty!
New Zealand’s version is:
God of grace and goodness,
A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa 1989-2005 page 571
you know that by reason of our frailty we cannot but fail;
keep us always under your protection
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I have no idea why the NZ Prayer Book turns “fall” into “fail” – my suspicion is that it is a typo! Furthermore, the concept “from all things hurtful”, recovered in 1662, has, again inexplicably, been removed from the NZ version.
Roman Catholics have this collect tucked away for Tuesday in the second week of Lent, where ICEL 1973 has it translated as:
Lord, watch over your Church,
and guide it with your unfailing love.
Protect us from what could harm us
and lead us to what will save us.
Help us always, for without you we are bound to fail.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation this became:
Watch over your Church, Lord God, with unfailing mercy, and since without you humankind will surely fall,
protect us by your grace from every harm
and guide us toward those things that work for our good.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.
and currently ICEL’s 2011 version:
Guard your Church, we pray, O Lord, in your unceasing mercy,
and, since without you mortal humanity is sure to fall,
may we be kept by your constant helps from all harm
and directed to all that brings salvation.
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.
(lost again in the collect at the top)