Expanding on yesterday’s post:
The principle of the Revised Common Lectionary/Three Year Series provides for a possible 53 Sundays/weeks in a liturgical year. As well as the Seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, there are 34 weeks that are “counting” weeks, called “Ordinary”, not in the sense of “not-special”, but from the Latin ordo, meaning, “marking the place or position of an object in an order (another English word also derived from ordo) or series”.
These Ordinary Weeks occur from The Baptism of Christ to Ash Wednesday and from The Day of Pentecost to Advent. [Don’t try and coordinate this with the 2020 edition of A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (ANZPB/HKMA2020) – that has, confusingly, glued other systems onto the simple system described here and so, unlike other systems, even ones that it is attempting to incorporate, I can see no provision in that book for the weekdays after the Day of Pentecost].
As I indicated, these Ordinary Weeks stop at Ash Wednesday and pick up again on the Day of Pentecost. In most years, there are only 33 Ordinary weeks needed, and so one week (of the 34 possible) drops away in that Lent/Easter Season section of the year.
This year is a good example. There are 52 Sundays/weeks in this Church Year (of the 53 possible), so only 33 Ordinary weeks are used (of the 34 possible). The week leading to Ash Wednesday was (Ordinary) Week 6. We drop (Ordinary) Week 7. Monday following the Day of Pentecost is in (Ordinary) Week 8.
On weekdays, in the world’s-most-followed systematic Bible-reading scheme (the Daily Eucharistic Lectionary), we left off reading at Mark 8:14-21 in Week 6, and so on the Monday after the Day of Pentecost we pick up at Mark 10:17-27 (that is the Gospel reading for Monday of Week 8). In the skipped period, we have dropped Mark 8:22-Mark 10:16.
The earliest possible date for the Day of Pentecost is 10 May. That means that the next day, Monday, can be as early as (Ordinary) Week 6 [not that you would be able to tell that in ANZPB/HKMA2020]. Prayer books, like the 1985 The Book of Alternative Services of The Anglican Church of Canada, follow a simple, consistent liturgical approach, and make all these point straightforwardly and clearly. [Even The Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer clearly indicates this in a different way].
So, the collect for the Day of Pentecost is not used the next day, Monday. This year, 2021, the week following the Day of Pentecost is Week 8; and this is the collect for Week 8:
Let us pray (in silence) [that we cooperate with God’s will]
Pause
Grant, Lord, [or O God]
that the course of this world may be directed by your peaceful governance,
and that your church may be joyful as,
in confidence and serenity,
we serve your purpose;
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above is part of my attempt to provide a set of collects with history and commentary. It is shared by Roman Catholics, Anglicans (Episcopalians), and others. Episcopalians use this collect when Ordinary 8 falls after the Easter Season. This year it does not.
Here is my commentary for this collect for Ordinary 8.
