Let us pray (in silence) [that we may love God in our hearts and in our actions]
Pause
O God,
direct our hearts
by the action of your mercy,
for without your help
we cannot please you;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above ancient prayer is used by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians/Anglicans and others. It has a long, shared history which you can find here with commentary and reflection: Ordinary 24 or below. The above is my rendering in my Book of Prayers in Common.
A Creation Season Reading for Sunday 15 September
Many, at this time, celebrate Creation Season.
This site is committed to the three year lectionary (RC) and its derivative, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Rather than departing from that lectionary, resources will be provided here that can be used to have a particular focus.
A creation reading of the lectionary for the Sunday between 11 and 17 September:
The Proverbs reading uses images certainly familiar to many, “panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind”; we are reaping the consequences of our actions (and inactions), we are “eating the fruit of our way”.
Psalm 19 is a wonderful proclamation of God’s creation.
The James text is littered with creation images and ideas (including how we humans harness and use, and, hence, possibly abuse creation): horses, strong winds, forests, fire, fresh water, fig trees, olives, and grapevines. It includes a text that is open to significant discussion and debate: “every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species”. When does “subduing” (וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ) and having “dominion over” (וּרְד֞וּ) creation (Gen 1:28) become destructive?
The Gospel reading has a wonderful creation-season question: “what will it profit them to gain the whole world”?
Resources beyond this site:
Textweek
Resourcing Preaching Down Under
Girardian Lectionary Reflection
Vanderbilt Divinity Library (in the updating of their website, they have not – yet – put in 301 redirects, so all links to them have currently been lost!)
Reflection on the Collect
The above is part of my attempt to provide a set of collects with history and commentary. It is a prayer prayed by Roman Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians, and others (even though they may pray this on different days).
This collect is for the fourteenth of the sixteen Sunday masses in the Gelasian sacramentary (#1230). For the Gregorian (effectively) (#1183), Sarum and 1549-1928 Prayer Books it is the collect for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Dirigat corda nostra quaesumus Domine tuae miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus sancti Deus. Per omnia secula seculorum, Amen.
Literally: Direct our hearts, Lord, we beseech you, by the working of your mercy, for without you we are not able to please you.
Cranmer 1549:
O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
The 1662 BCP revisers altered the collect to include the action of the Holy Spirit. This revision has affected contemporary Anglican revisions of this prayer:
O God, forasmuch as without thee we are
not able to please thee; Mercifully grant,
that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct
and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa page 612:
Almighty God,
you have called us to serve you,
yet without your grace
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
BCP (USA) p.233 Proper 19; Sunday closest to September 14:
O God,
because without you we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things
direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Chrsit our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Common Worship (CofE) Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity:
O God, forasmuch as without you
we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
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.
ICEL’s earlier translation (1973) had:
Lord, guide us in your gentle mercy, for left to ourselves we cannot do your will.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation:
Almighty God,
let the working of your gentle mercy direct the movement of our hearts, for without your grace
we cannot find favour in your sight.
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.
(Saturday, 4th Week of Lent)
Current ICEL (2011):
May the working of your mercy, O Lord, we pray, direct our hearts aright, for without your grace we cannot find favor in your sight.
Do follow:
The Liturgy Facebook Page
The Liturgy Twitter Profile
The Liturgy Instagram
and/or sign up to a not-too-often email
