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.
Click on this link to find my history, commentary, and reflection on this collect: Ordinary 16 or see below.
Links off this site:
Textweek
Resourcing Preaching Down Under
Collects
Recently, I updated my (free – no catch) Book of Prayers in Common to have all Sunday collects until the end of the year. More information here.
Bible Sunday
I am not in favour of abandoning our ecumenically agreed three-year cycle of readings (also an agreed formulary of my own Church) for a “themed” Sunday. The NZ Lectionary booklet provides the option for this Sunday to celebrate “National Bible Sunday”. Other than, essentially, every Sunday being “Bible Sunday”, the Lectionary booklet then goes on to suggest that we abandon our agreed formulary readings from the Bible, and provides us with three readings and a psalm from mummy CofE, a set of readings that has no status in our Church. My suggestion, if you are commemorating “Bible Sunday”: do so with the readings from the Bible that we have agreed to as a Church! Sing about the Bible, pray about the Bible, preach about the Bible, and even consider (if you want to depart from the collect suggested above) that you use possibly one of the most famous collects from the Anglican tradition that is absent from the NZ Prayer Book:
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may persevere in our growth into God’s life]
pause
God of all inspiration,
you caused all holy scriptures to be written for our instruction
grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that by steadfastness, and by the encouragement of your holy Word,
we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
Commentary on the “Bible Sunday” collect.
Reflection on the Collect
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,
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.A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa 1989-2005 page 571
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.
Mark in Slow Motion
I have been working on a series of reading Mark (this year’s primary Sunday Gospel) in slow motion. Unfortunately, the Sunday readings are now ahead of where I have prepared for, but, hopefully, they provide a good frame:
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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