Collect for Conversion of St. Paul (1928 BCP)

Collect for Conversion of St. Paul (1928 BCP) examines the appointed collect for the Conversion of St. Paul in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The prayer belongs to the fixed holy day of January 25 and joins the Church's remembrance of Paul's conversion to thanksgiving for apostolic doctrine, missionary preaching, and costly discipleship.

Text of the Collect

O GOD, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world; Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect has a clear four-part movement. It first addresses God as the one who used Paul's preaching to spread the Gospel's light. It then asks that the Church may remember his conversion rightly. Its practical petition is not mere admiration of Paul, but thankful obedience: "following the holy doctrine which he taught." The prayer closes through Christ, so that Paul's ministry remains derivative from the Lord who met him on the Damascus road.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed "For the Epistle" is Acts ix. 1, the Damascus-road narrative. In the Prayer Book setting, the collect's phrase "wonderful conversion" is not sentimental shorthand. It is grounded in the text where the persecutor is stopped by the risen Christ and then commissioned through Ananias:

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

This passage explains why the collect speaks both of light and doctrine. Paul is not converted into private religious experience only. He is made a "chosen vessel" to bear Christ's name before Gentiles, rulers, and Israel. The collect's thanksgiving is therefore missionary and doctrinal at once: the Church thanks God for the apostle by receiving what he preached.

The same lesson connects conversion with Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and immediate confession of Christ:

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

The clause "hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine" is thus tied to Paul's own restored sight and to the Church's outward witness. The apostle who had gone to Damascus to bind Christians is baptized and begins to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God.

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel is St. Matthew xix. 27. It places Paul's apostolic vocation under Christ's promise to those who leave all and follow him:

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

The Gospel prevents the feast from treating Paul's conversion as triumph without cost. Acts ix says that Paul must suffer for Christ's name; Matthew xix promises that those who leave earthly securities for Christ will receive the kingdom. The collect's "following" is therefore active discipleship, not an antiquarian memory of an apostle.

Historical Form

John Cosin's Prayer Book notes preserve the older English form of the collect before the 1662 revision. That earlier form already joined Paul's preaching, his conversion, and Christian obedience:

God, which hast taught all the world through the preaching of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, grant, we beseech Thee, that we which have his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may follow and fulfil Thy holy doctrine that he taught, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The 1928 American text stands in the line of the 1662 revision. It keeps the same basic doctrine while adding the phrase "hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world" and making the response explicitly thankful: "may show forth our thankfulness unto thee."

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere place the collect among the holy-day collects whose older material had to be reshaped when the reformed calendar no longer prayed for the intercession of saints:

When the Kalendar was reformed it was necessary to compose a considerable number of new Collects, since many of the old Collects were mainly prayers for the saints' intercession.

In the same discussion they identify this collect's source stream:

The Collect for S. Thomas' Day dates from 1549: that of the Conversion of S. Paul is derived from the Latin: and then follow a series with a similar origin comprising those for the Purification, Annunciation, and S. Mark's Day.

This history matters for interpretation. The collect is not a prayer to Paul. It is a prayer to God in thanksgiving for God's work through Paul, asking for obedient reception of apostolic doctrine.

Liturgical and Theological Interpretation

Edward Meyrick Goulburn reads the feast as one of the unusual calendar days observed for an event in a saint's life rather than simply for the date of death or martyrdom:

St. Paul's conversion, as having been effected in a manner so stupendous, and having been productive of such large results to the future of Christianity, is also observed in lieu of the anniversary of his martyrdom.

Goulburn also gives a direct theological reading of the opening clause. Paul's special work is preaching and teaching:

His line and province was that, for which he had been specially endowed--preaching and teaching. And hence we find that both preaching and teaching are the functions ascribed to him in the Collect for his Festival.

That reading helps explain the collect's final petition. The Church shows thankfulness not chiefly by praising Paul's personality, but by following the doctrine he taught. The prayer therefore guards both mission and doctrine: Gospel light spreads through apostolic preaching, and gratitude is shown by faithful obedience.

John Henry Blunt gives a complementary historical interpretation of Paul's place in the spread of the faith:

By his means also were founded the first Christian Churches in the continent of Europe, those in Macedonia; and he seems to have had a desire to work onward towards the west, as he had done from the east, hoping to visit Spain.

This supports the collect's phrase "throughout the world." The prayer is not claiming that Paul alone evangelized all peoples. It treats him as the apostolic figure in whom the Gentile mission becomes visible, scriptural, and doctrinally authoritative for the Church.

Karl Adam Heinrich Kellner summarizes the feast's older Western history and notes its established place on January 25:

As early as the sixth century the Franks, and at a later date the Gallicans, kept the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25, and in the twelfth century we meet with it at Rome.

The 1928 BCP's January 25 heading is therefore part of a long Western observance. The American book receives that older calendar use while expressing the feast through a distinctly Anglican collect: Scripture is read, God's grace is praised, and apostolic doctrine is followed.

Use in Worship

In the 1928 BCP this collect is one of the fixed holy-day propers in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels." It may be used wherever the appointed collect for the day is called for by the Prayer Book rubrics, especially at Holy Communion and in the Daily Office pattern of collecting the day in prayer.

Devotionally, the collect gives a compact rule for remembering any saint: the Church thanks God for his work, hears Scripture, receives apostolic doctrine, and asks for obedient imitation only under Christ. On the Conversion of St. Paul, that remembrance is especially focused on grace that turns an enemy into a preacher, light that reaches the nations, and doctrine that must be followed in thankful life.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Saints' Days in the 1928 BCP
• The Conversion of Saint Paul in Anglican Worship

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF
• Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer
• Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer
• John Henry Blunt, The Church History of the First Three Centuries
• Karl Adam Heinrich Kellner, Heortology