Collect for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

From AnglicanWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Collect for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the 1928 American Prayer Book collect appointed for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. Its short petition joins a severe Anglican doctrine of human dependence to a direct prayer for the personal work of the Holy Ghost: only by God's own Spirit can the heart be directed, ruled, and made pleasing to God.

Text of the Collect

O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect has two clauses. First, it confesses that man cannot please God "without thee"; second, it asks God mercifully to give the Holy Spirit to "direct and rule our hearts." The prayer therefore does not treat obedience as a merely natural power. It asks for inward government by the Holy Ghost, and it locates that government "through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Appointed Lessons

The Epistle is Ephesians 4:17-32. Its central image is the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new; this is why the collect asks not merely for better information, but for the Spirit's rule of the heart.

But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

[2]

The Epistle also names the Spirit directly: the baptized are not to grieve the Spirit by whom they are sealed. This gives the collect's petition a moral edge. The Spirit who directs and rules the heart is also the Spirit whose indwelling is contradicted by bitterness, wrath, anger, evil speaking, and malice.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

[3]

The Gospel is Matthew 9:1-8, the healing of the man sick of the palsy. The lesson displays the authority of the Son of Man to forgive sins and to restore the body. Read with the collect, the Gospel teaches that the heart is ruled by grace because Christ has authority not only to command, but to forgive and heal.

Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

[4]

Prayer Book Doctrine

The collect's "without thee" is closely aligned with the 1928 Catechism. After rehearsing the duties of obedience, the Catechism immediately teaches the child to ask for special grace by prayer:

My good Child, know this; that thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve him, without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer.

[5]

This is classical Anglican pastoral theology in miniature. The collect does not lower God's command to match fallen capacity; it teaches the Church to ask God for the grace by which obedience becomes possible. That is why the prayer names the heart. The Epistle lists outward sins of speech, anger, theft, and malice, but their cure is inward renewal in the "spirit of your mind."

Historical Source and Revision

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere print the Latin source in their account of the old collects after Trinity. They also note the Restoration change by which the English collect came to speak explicitly of the Holy Spirit.

Nineteenth. Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, miserationis operatio, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.

[6]

The words, thy Holy Spirit, were substituted in 1661 for 'the working of thy mercy.' The Epistle, Eph. iv, 17-32, was appointed in 1549, instead of the short portion, vv. 23-28.

[7]

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book likewise prints the collect with its Latin source and identifies its ancient service-book witnesses, including Gregorian and Gelasian material. His apparatus is useful because it shows that the 1928 collect stands within a long Western liturgical inheritance rather than as a modern devotional composition.

DIRIGAT corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, Tuae miserationis operatio; quia Tibi sine Te placere non possumus. Per Dominum nostrum.

[8]

Interpretation

Edward Meyrick Goulburn treats the 1661 revision as a theological gain because it makes explicit that the sanctifying agency prayed for is the Holy Ghost himself. He does not read "direct and rule" as redundant. Direction concerns the right path; rule concerns authority and power over the will.

Cosin thought it good expressly to assert it; and so, without dropping the idea of the Divine mercy, he made explicit mention of the great Agent in our sanctification; it was no longer to be, "Grant that the operation of thy mercy may direct our hearts," but, "Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may direct" them.

[9]

Goulburn's explanation also guards the prayer from a vague appeal to inspiration. The collect asks for the whole person to come under the Spirit's government in ordinary choices.

Direction asks for wisdom; rule asks for authority and power. And it was particularly fitting that, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, His direction should be distinguished from His rule.

[10]

Finally, Goulburn connects the collect's first clause to union with God by the Holy Spirit. "Without thee" does not mean merely without divine assistance added to an otherwise self-sufficient will; it means severance from God, whose Spirit joins the believer to Christ.

To say, then, that in severance from God we are unable to please Him, is exactly the same thing as to say that without His Spirit, in the absence or withdrawal of His Spirit, we cannot please Him.

[11]

Liturgical Use

In the 1928 Prayer Book this collect is used with the proper Epistle and Gospel at the Holy Communion for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, and as the collect of the week where the Prayer Book's ordinary Sunday collect pattern is followed. It is especially suited to catechesis on sanctification: the Christian life is not self-improvement before God, but life in Christ by the Spirit, in which the forgiven heart is renewed and governed for obedience.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," exact prayer "Collect for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity"; wording compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and checked against the extracted 1928 Propers PDF text. 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book".
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, Ephesians 4:17-32; quoted portion from verses 20-24,. 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book".
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, Ephesians 4:29-30; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book".
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, Matthew 9:1-8; quoted portion from verses 2-4,. 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book".
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "A Catechism," catechist's instruction after the answer on duty toward neighbour; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book".
  6. ↑ 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), p. 552; Internet Archive, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer".
  7. ↑ 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), p. 553 n. 5; Internet Archive, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer".
  8. ↑ 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. 317, "The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Internet Archive, "The Annotated Book of Common Prayer".
  9. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer: An Exposition, Critical and Devotional, abridged from The Collects of the Day (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1883), pp. 320-321; Internet Archive, "The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer".
  10. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer: An Exposition, Critical and Devotional, abridged from The Collects of the Day (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1883), p. 321; Internet Archive, "The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer".
  11. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer: An Exposition, Critical and Devotional, abridged from The Collects of the Day (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1883), pp. 322-323; Internet Archive, "The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer".
Retrieved from "https://www.anglicanwiki.org/index.php?title=Collect_for_Nineteenth_Sunday_after_Trinity_(1928_BCP)&oldid=3155"