Collect for Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)
Collect for Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. It asks God to increase the three theological virtues named by Saint Paul--faith, hope, and charity--and then joins promise and commandment: the Church prays to receive what God promises by being made to love what God commands.
Text of the Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The prayer has two movements. First, it petitions God for the increase of faith, hope, and charity, not as human achievements but as graces enlarged by God. Secondly, it asks that the promised end may be reached by an inwardly changed will: "make us to love that which thou dost command." The collect therefore does not set promise against obedience. It prays for the Spirit-given love by which obedience becomes the way of receiving God's promise rather than a bare legal burden.
Appointed Epistle
The Epistle appointed in the 1928 BCP is Galatians v.16-24. Its opening contrast between the flesh and the Spirit gives the collect its immediate moral setting:
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
The collect's "make us to love that which thou dost command" is especially close to the Epistle's account of Spirit-led life. Saint Paul does not merely list forbidden works; he names the fruit by which the Spirit forms Christian character:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
In that setting, faith, hope, and charity are not abstract virtues. Faith receives God's promise; hope looks toward its fulfilment; charity loves the commanded good because the Spirit has turned the heart toward God.
Appointed Gospel
The Gospel appointed in the 1928 BCP is St. Luke xvii.11-19, the cleansing of the ten lepers. The narrative begins with a cry for mercy and a command from Christ:
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
The command is obeyed before the visible healing is complete: "as they went, they were cleansed." That pattern illuminates the collect. The Church asks to love God's command because God's promise is received on the way of obedient faith. The Gospel then focuses on the one Samaritan who returns:
One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
The collect's charity is therefore not sentiment alone. It becomes thankful adoration and return to Christ. The healed Samaritan is the Gospel image of a heart that has received mercy and has been turned toward the giver.
Liturgical History
The collect is older than the American 1928 book. The Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer preserves the same traditional proper for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity:
Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere identify the Sundays after Trinity as standing in the order inherited from the Sarum Missal:
The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the Sundays after Trinity are taken in the order in which they stood in the Sarum Missal.
Their additional note gives the Latin original for this collect:
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei spei et caritatis augmentum; et ut mereamur assequi quod promittis, fac nos amare quod praecipis.
The modern 1928 Common Prayer source index likewise marks the collect as Sarum:
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Sarum
"Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity..."
Theological Interpretation
The collect is often read through the relation of the three theological virtues. The Common Prayer commentary on the Prayer Book lectionary summarizes the petition as growth in grace:
As our faith strengthens, the more real becomes our hope and the greater our capacity to love.
John Henry Blunt interprets the Gospel as a lesson in thanksgiving:
The Gospel of this Sunday, like the last, is a memorial of harvest, setting forth the duty of Christian thanksgiving.
Charles Kingsley preached on both appointed readings for this Sunday. On the Epistle, he describes Spirit-led obedience as inwardly transformed duty rather than mere fear of punishment:
The law works on a man from the outside by fear; but the Spirit of God works in a man by honour.
On the Gospel, Kingsley turns the lepers' healing into an examination of gratitude:
If such a blessing had come to us, should we have thought any thanks too great!
Taken together, the collect, Epistle, and Gospel form a single devotional argument. The Church asks God for faith, hope, and charity; the Epistle names the Spirit's fruit as the form of Christian life; and the Gospel shows mercy received in faith returning to Christ in thanksgiving.
Use in Worship
In the 1928 BCP, this collect belongs to the cycle of the Sundays after Trinity and is appointed with Galatians v.16-24 and St. Luke xvii.11-19 at Holy Communion. Like other collects of the day, it may also be carried devotionally through the week as a brief rule of prayer: ask for the increase of faith, hope, and charity; love what God commands; and return thanks for mercy received.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
External Links
- 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF
- Trinity 14 Propers (1928 BCP)
- Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
- Common Prayer commentary for Trinity 14
- Blunt commentary for Trinity 14
- Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons
References
- ↑ Collect for Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 209, under "The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity"; verified against the 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, page label Sec2:ccxv, and compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ Epistle for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Galatians 5:16-17, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 209; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, page label Sec2:ccxv.
- ↑ Epistle for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Galatians 5:22-23, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 209; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, page label Sec2:ccxv.
- ↑ Gospel for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Luke 17:13-14, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed pp. 209-210; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, page labels Sec2:ccxv-Sec2:ccxvi.
- ↑ Gospel for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Luke 17:15-16, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 210; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, page label Sec2:ccxvi.
- ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer: The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Cambridge University Press 2006 edition of the 1662 BCP, "The Collect," in The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity; URL checked 2026-10-08.
- ↑ 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, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," p. 545 in the printed edition, transcribed in Project Canterbury, Chapter XIII.
- ↑ 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), Additional Note to chapter XIII, "The following are the originals of the Collects for the Sundays after Trinity," p. 553, "Fourteenth"; Project Canterbury transcription by Charles Wohlers.
- ↑ New Every Morning Anglican Fellowship, "Sources of the Seasonal Collects," section VIII, Trinitytide, "The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Sources of the Seasonal Collects.
- ↑ 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, n.d.), pp. 29-30, excerpt for "The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Lectionary Central transcription, reprinted with permission of the publisher.
- ↑ John Henry Blunt, ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer (London: Rivingtons, 1884), commentary on the "Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity"; excerpted at Lectionary Central, "FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY".
- ↑ Charles Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons (London: Macmillan and Co., 1861), sermon XXXVI, "The Battle Within (Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1858)," on Galatians v.16-17; Project Gutenberg eBook no. 11536.
- ↑ Charles Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons (London: Macmillan and Co., 1861), sermon XXVIII, "The Ten Lepers (Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity)," on Luke xvii.17-18; Project Gutenberg eBook no. 11536.