Collect for Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)
Collect for Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) examines the appointed collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The prayer asks God to keep his Church by perpetual mercy, to restrain human frailty from what is hurtful, and to guide the faithful toward what is profitable to salvation.
Text of the Collect
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.
The collect has one movement in three petitions. First, it addresses God as the keeper of "thy Church," making the Church's endurance an act of divine mercy rather than institutional self-preservation. Second, it confesses the "frailty of man," not as a passing weakness but as a condition that "without thee cannot but fall." Third, it asks for active guidance: God is entreated both to keep the faithful "from all things hurtful" and to lead them toward all things "profitable to our salvation."
Appointed Epistle and Gospel
The appointed Epistle is Galatians 6:11-18. Its climax interprets the collect's prayer for preservation through the cross rather than through outward religious display:
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
The appointed Gospel is Matthew 6:24-34. It sets the collect's language of hurtful and profitable things within Christ's teaching on divided service, anxious care, and the priority of the kingdom:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
The collect therefore does not ask for a general religious mood. "Keep us ever by thy help" answers the Epistle's rejection of glorying in the flesh, while "lead us to all things profitable to our salvation" answers the Gospel's command to seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God.
Liturgical and Historical Context
Procter and Frere describe the Prayer Book propers after Trinity as the practical half of the church year, where Epistle and Gospel are read in relation to Christian obedience:
In the second part of the year, from Trinity to Advent, the Epistles form a continuous series and the Gospels are chosen with reference to them.
They also summarize the classical collect form as a terse, unified prayer rather than a diffuse meditation:
It generally consists of (i) an introductory address and commemoration, on which is based (ii) a single central prayer.
In their additional note on the originals of the Sundays after Trinity collects, Procter and Frere print the Latin source behind this prayer:
Custodi, Domine, quaesumus, ecclesiam tuam propitiatione perpetua: et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxiis, et ad salutaria dirigatur.
This history explains why the 1928 collect sounds both ancient and sharply pastoral. Cranmer's Englishing of the Latin prayer retains its paired movement away from harmful things and toward salutary things, while the 1928 American book receives that inherited form within its own sequence of propers.
Theological Interpretation
The St. Peter Publications commentary on Trinity XV notes the ecclesial force of the opening phrase:
The Church is not ours, but his. The Church is founded upon his authority and made holy by his Spirit.
The same commentary connects the collect's plea for mercy with the Epistle's theology of the cross:
The Church can never be made strong and holy by its sheer numbers, its political influence, or its wealth.
Read in that light, "thy perpetual mercy" is not sentiment but preservation under the cross. The collect's anthropology is equally sober: "the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall." The human will requires God's help not merely to avoid obvious evil, but to distinguish what is finally profitable from what only appears profitable under the pressure of mammon, anxiety, and worldly honor.
Use in Worship
In the 1928 BCP, the collect belongs to the proper for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity and is used with Galatians 6:11-18 and Matthew 6:24-34 at Holy Communion. By normal Prayer Book practice, the collect of the day also shapes the offices and devotional prayer of the week. Its petitions make it especially apt for catechesis on providence, the Church's dependence on grace, and the Christian distinction between temporal usefulness and salvation.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
External Links
- Society of Archbishop Justus: The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
- Lectionary Central: Common Prayer commentary on Trinity XV
- Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
References
- ↑ 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Standard Book accepted in 1928 (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1929), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "Collect for Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity," p. 210, via 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book PDF; compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".
- ↑ The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Standard Book accepted in 1928, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, Galatians vi. 11, printed pp. 210-211, via 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book PDF; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".
- ↑ The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Standard Book accepted in 1928, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Matthew vi. 24, printed pp. 211-212, via 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book PDF; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".
- ↑ The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Standard Book accepted in 1928, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Matthew vi. 24, printed p. 212, via 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book PDF; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: With a Rationale of Its Offices, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holy Days," via Project Canterbury, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: With a Rationale of Its Offices, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), chapter XIII, section "The Collect. Nature of a Collect," via Project Canterbury, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: With a Rationale of Its Offices, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), chapter XIII, Additional Note, "The following are the originals of the Collects for the Sundays after Trinity," Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, via Project Canterbury, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13".
- ↑ St. Peter Publications, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 5, Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity to Twenty Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications), pp. 42-43, excerpted with publisher permission at Lectionary Central, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".
- ↑ St. Peter Publications, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 5, Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity to Twenty Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications), pp. 42-43, excerpted with publisher permission at Lectionary Central, "The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity".