Collect for Fourth Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Fourth Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for the Fourth Sunday in Advent in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It is the final Sunday collect before Christmas in the 1928 sequence of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, joining penitence, divine help, Philippians iv, and John the Baptist's witness that "The Lord is at hand."

Text of the Collect

O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

[1]

Liturgical Setting

The collect is printed after the Third Sunday in Advent and immediately before the Christmas Day propers. In the 1928 book it is said with the Advent I collect, because the First Sunday collect is repeated after the other Advent collects until Christmas Day. The prayer therefore closes Advent by asking not merely for seasonal feeling, but for God's own power to help sinners who are hindered in the Christian race.

The appointed Epistle gives the Sunday its note of near joy and prayer:

REJOICE in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

[2]

The Gospel returns to John the Baptist, not as the Christ, but as the voice that points beyond itself:

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

[3]

The collect, Epistle, and Gospel belong together. The Church rejoices because the Lord is near; it asks for help because sin still obstructs obedience; and it hears John the Baptist make Advent preparation concrete: the way of the Lord must be made straight.

Clause by Clause

"O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power" gives the collect its older Advent character. "Raise up" translates the Latin Excita, the "stir up" or "rouse up" language attached to several older Advent collects. The prayer begins with divine action because the Church does not imagine that human resolution can overcome sin by itself.

Frank Lawrence Vernon, writing for the Fourth Sunday in Advent in 1942, interprets the opening petition as hope born out of penitence:

With penitence comes the first ray of hope. We lift up our eyes and we stretch out our hands and we cry, "Raise up Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us."

[4]

"And come among us" is not vague religious language. The Fourth Sunday stands before the Nativity, so the petition looks toward Christ's coming in the flesh; but it also asks for present grace, help, and deliverance in the congregation now praying.

John Henry Blunt reads the appointed Scriptures as a heralding of the near King:

On this Sunday, the close approach of the King of Glory to His kingdom of grace is heralded by Scriptures of which the pointed words are, "The Lord is at hand," "Make straight the way of the Lord."

[5]

"With great might succour us" asks for help from outside the self. The word "succour" means aid, support, or rescue. In the collect it is not an ornament: the people confess that sin has left them unable to run rightly without grace.

"Through our sins and wickedness" makes the hindrance moral and spiritual. The collect does not blame mere circumstance, weakness, or ignorance. It teaches the congregation to name sin as the obstruction which divine mercy must overcome.

Vernon makes this penitential reading explicit in his 1937 letter:

We can only realize the joy of Our Lord's coming by first realizing our need of Him. We can only realize our need of Him by first realizing our sins and wickedness.

[6]

"We are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us" brings the collect near to Hebrews xii. "Let" here means impeded or obstructed, not permitted. The race is not a private achievement; it is the persevering Christian life set before the baptized people of God.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

[7]

"Thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us" gives the collect its evangelical movement. The prayer does not end with self-accusation. It asks that grace and mercy do what the hindered sinner cannot do unaided: help, deliver, and bring the people to readiness for Christ.

The final doxology, "through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory," is Trinitarian. The prayer is addressed to the Lord, asks God to come among his people, and ends by giving honour and glory to Christ with the Father and the Holy Ghost.

Prayer Book History

The Fourth Sunday collect is the surviving Advent member of the older "Excita" series in the English Prayer Book pattern. Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere explain the change in the Advent collect sequence after the first two 1549 collects and the later Third Sunday collect:

In consequence of this change only one was left of the series of Collects beginning 'Excita' which were characteristic of Advent in the Latin Books, namely at the Fourth Sunday.

[8]

Their note to the chapter also gives the Sarum Latin form behind the Fourth Sunday collect:

Excita, quaesumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: et magna nobis virtute succurre: ut per auxilium gratiae tuae quod nostra peccata praepediunt, indulgentia tuae propitiationis acceleret.

[9]

John Cosin's collected Prayer Book notes preserve the pre-1662 English form and show how close it already stood to the later collect:

Before 1662 the collect ran thus: Lord, raise up, we pray Thee, Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us, that whereas through our sins and wickedness we be sore let and hindered, Thy bountiful grace and mercy (through the satisfaction of Thy Son our Lord) may speedily deliver us.

[10]

The 1928 American form keeps the "raise up thy power" structure but uses "through Jesus Christ our Lord" rather than the older parenthetical "through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord." That change makes the collect read as a more direct Advent petition while preserving the same penitential movement from hindrance to mercy.

Theological Meaning

The collect is penitential, but not despairing. It teaches the people to confess that sin impedes obedience; it also teaches them to ask boldly for speedy help. The Fourth Sunday therefore prepares for Christmas by joining repentance to joy. Philippians says, "Rejoice"; the collect explains why that rejoicing must be received as grace.

It is also ecclesial. The first person plural matters: "come among us," "succour us," "our sins and wickedness," "help and deliver us." The Church does not place isolated spiritual athletes before God. It prays as one hindered people needing one bountiful mercy.

Finally, the collect is Advent prayer. The Lord who is "at hand" is also the one for whom John bears witness. The congregation is taught to make the way straight by repentance, prayer, and trust in mercy, so that Christmas joy is not sentimental but evangelical: God comes among sinners to help and deliver them.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

At Holy Communion (1928 BCP), the collect should be heard with the Epistle and Gospel appointed for the day. Philippians iv supplies the posture of joy, moderation, prayer, thanksgiving, and peace; John i supplies the Baptist's witness to the unknown Christ standing among his people. In the Daily Office, the collect may also shape the final Advent week as a repeated prayer for help against sin's hindrance.

In catechesis, the collect can be taught through four questions. What do we ask God to do? Raise up his power and come among us. Why do we need this? Our sins and wickedness hinder the race set before us. What do we ask grace and mercy to do? Help and deliver us speedily. Toward what end? Honour and glory to Christ with the Father and the Holy Ghost as the Church approaches the Nativity.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," "The Fourth Sunday in Advent," Collect for Fourth Sunday in Advent, p. 94; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels. Quotation compared word for word with local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 301-345, and with downloaded PDF extraction tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/1928-propers-pypdf.txt, lines 215-225; the local HTML's apostrophe before "deliver," older "through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord" note, and "world with out" OCR spacing were corrected against the 1928 PDF text and its side note at lines 343-345.
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," "The Fourth Sunday in Advent," Epistle, Philippians iv. 4, p. 94; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels. Quotation checked against local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 312-319, and tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/1928-propers-pypdf.txt, lines 226-233; spacing normalized.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," "The Fourth Sunday in Advent," Gospel, St. John i. 19, p. 94; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels. Quotation checked against local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 321-337, and tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/1928-propers-pypdf.txt, lines 234-253; OCR spacing normalized.
  4. ↑ Frank Lawrence Vernon, Locust Street Letters, "The Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1942" (Philadelphia: St. Mark's Church, Locust Street); Project Canterbury transcription, Locust Street Letters, by Frank Lawrence Vernon: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1942. Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/vernon-1942advent4.html, lines 37-39; capitalization retained from the transcription.
  5. ↑ Church of England; John Henry Blunt, ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer: Being an Historical, Ritual, and Theological Commentary on the Devotional System of the Church of England, new edition (London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895), p. 249, note on "The Fourth Sunday in Advent"; Internet Archive scan/OCR, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Quotation checked against local OCR tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/blunt-annotated-bcp-1895.txt, lines 54870-54875; OCR spacing normalized.
  6. ↑ Frank Lawrence Vernon, Locust Street Letters, "The Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1937" (Philadelphia: St. Mark's Church, Locust Street); Project Canterbury transcription, Locust Street Letters, by Frank Lawrence Vernon: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1937. Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/vernon-1937advent4.html, lines 37-39.
  7. ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: King James Version, Hebrews xii. 1; Wikisource, The King James Bible: Hebrews. Quotation checked against the named public text on 2026-08-29. This biblical citation supports the collect's phrase "the race that is set before us" but is not counted as an authored interpretive source.
  8. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 525, chapter XIII, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII. Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 186-192; HTML line breaks normalized.
  9. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 525 n. 8, chapter XIII, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII. Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 1087-1101; Latin ligatures and accents normalized from HTML entities.
  10. ↑ John Cosin, The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God John Cosin, Lord Bishop of Durham, Now First Collected, vol. 5, "Notes and Collections on the Book of Common Prayer" (Oxford: John Henry and James Parker, 1855), note on "The Fourth Sunday in Advent," p. 251; Internet Archive full text, The Works of John Cosin, vol. 5. Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-fourth-sunday-in-advent/cosin-works-vol1.txt, lines 79-85 and 20265-20282; OCR errors in "Thy" and "Lord" were corrected from context, and the quotation is stopped before the following Latin citation.

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