Collect for Fifth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

Collect for Fifth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity. It asks that the course of the world be peaceably ordered by God's governance so that the Church may serve him joyfully in godly quietness. In the 1928 propers it stands with 1 St. Peter iii.8-15, on blessing, peace, and courage under suffering, and St. Luke v.1-11, on Christ's word, the miraculous draught of fishes, Peter's repentance, and the apostolic call to catch men.

Text of the Collect

GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer Book Setting

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity turns the Church's prayer outward without making it merely political. The collect asks God to order "the course of this world," but the end of that peaceable ordering is ecclesial and doxological: "that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness." The 1928 appointment therefore joins public order, the Church's worship, and the apostolic life of charity and mission.

The Epistle gives the moral shape of "godly quietness." The Church's peace is not passivity; it is the blessed life of one mind, compassion, brotherly love, humility, restraint of speech, and active pursuit of peace:

BE ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

The Epistle then quotes the Psalmic pattern of peace and prayer. This is the immediate scriptural answer to the collect's petition: peaceful order is sought from God, while the faithful are commanded to eschew evil, do good, seek peace, and sanctify the Lord in their hearts:

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel, St. Luke v.1-11, prevents the collect from becoming a prayer for mere social calm. Christ teaches from Simon's ship and then commands an act of obedience that exceeds visible evidence. "Peaceably ordered" life is therefore ordered by the Lord's word, even after a night of fruitless toil:

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

The Gospel also gives the missionary result of quiet service. Peter's confession, "I am a sinful man," is met not with rejection but with a call: "from henceforth thou shalt catch men." The Church that prays for godly quietness is being made free for obedient witness:

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken.

And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

Clause by Clause

"Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee" makes the whole collect petitionary. The desired peace is not assumed to arise from human management alone; it is asked from the Lord. "That the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance" names God's providential rule over the public, historical, and creaturely order. The collect does not ask the Church to escape the world, but asks that the world's course be governed toward peace.

"That thy Church may joyfully serve thee" gives the reason for the petition. Peaceable order is not treated as an end in itself. It is ordered toward the Church's service of God, especially in worship, charity, and mission. "In all godly quietness" is therefore not withdrawal from apostolic labor. Read beside 1 St. Peter iii, it includes disciplined speech, blessing rather than retaliation, and courage under suffering. Read beside St. Luke v, it includes obedience to Christ's word and freedom to follow him.

The Prayer Book's own daily collects echo this grammar. Morning Prayer asks that "all our doings may be ordered by thy governance," and Evening Prayer asks for "that peace which the world cannot give." The Fifth Sunday after Trinity collect gathers those same themes into the Sunday proper: God's governance orders the world, and God's peace makes the Church free for holy service.

Historical Development

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere identify the Fifth Sunday after Trinity collect among the older Latin originals of the Sundays after Trinity:

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, ut et mundi cursus pacifice nobis tuo ordine dirigatur, et ecclesia tua tranquilla devotione laetetur.

New Every Morning Anglican Fellowship's index of seasonal collect sources likewise identifies the Fifth Sunday after Trinity collect as Sarum in origin:

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Anthony Ward's study of the same Latin collect in Notitiae traces the prayer's older Roman witnesses and its movement through later Western books. His summary supports reading the 1928 collect as a Prayer Book English form of a much older liturgical petition:

This stately oration is found among the collection of ferial prayers in the papal sacramentary known as the Hadrianum and also with a minor variant as part of a similar group of texts in the Libelli preserved at Verona.

Ward also notes the collect's remarkable textual stability in the Western tradition:

The actual text of the collect has known little variation apart from the address to God, and a later tendency, from the Supplement of St Benedict of Aniane onwards, to adopt the reading "pacifice".

The official Church of England 1662 text shows the collect's continuity in the English Prayer Book tradition. The 1662 wording is substantially the same as the American 1928 text:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect also remains in official contemporary Church of England use as a post-communion prayer for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity:

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Theological Use

The collect teaches the Church to pray for public peace without confusing public peace with the kingdom of God. God's governance is asked for the world's course, yet the stated fruit is the Church's joyful service. That service is interpreted by the Epistle as blessing, compassion, truthful speech, and the pursuit of peace; it is interpreted by the Gospel as obedience to Christ's word, repentance before his holiness, and apostolic mission.

For preaching and catechesis, the collect can be read in four movements. First, it asks rather than presumes: peaceable order is a divine gift. Second, it confesses providence: the world's course needs God's governance. Third, it identifies the Church's vocation: peace exists so that the Church may serve God joyfully. Fourth, it defines quietness as godly quietness: not cowardice or mere respectability, but the ordered peace in which Christians bless rather than retaliate, sanctify the Lord in their hearts, and follow Christ into mission.

In worship, the collect is used at Holy Communion with the appointed Epistle and Gospel, and as the collect of the day in the Prayer Book's weekly rhythm. It is strongest when heard with the whole proper: St. Peter commands the pursuit of peace and courage under suffering, while St. Luke shows Christ creating abundance from failed labor and calling sinners into apostolic service.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Sundays after Trinity (1928 BCP)
• Trinitytide in the 1928 BCP
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF
• Church of England: The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
• Anthony Ward, "The Origins of the Collect for the Eighth Sunday per annum"
• Sources of the Seasonal Collects