Collect for Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1928 BCP)

Collect for Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1928 BCP) examines the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for February 2, printed as "The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin." The prayer asks that, as Christ was presented in the temple "in substance of our flesh," the Church may itself be presented to God with purified hearts through the same incarnate Son.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect moves in a close parallel. Christ is first presented in the temple "in substance of our flesh"; the Church then asks to be presented to God with "pure and clean hearts." The prayer does not treat the feast merely as a memory of an event in the infancy narrative. It turns Christ's historical presentation into a petition for purification and final acceptance through him.

Clause by clause, the prayer is also deliberately christological. "Almighty and everliving God" is addressed with solemn temple language. "Thy only-begotten Son" identifies the child of Luke 2 as the eternal Son. "In substance of our flesh" guards the reality of the Incarnation. "Pure and clean hearts" asks for the inward purification signified by the feast. "By the same thy Son" makes Christ not only the remembered child but the one through whom the Church is finally presented to the Father.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed "For the Epistle" is Malachi iii. 1. In the 1928 Prayer Book it is not a generic Old Testament lesson about purification; it is the prophecy of the Lord coming to his temple:

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

The collect's "presented in the temple" is therefore read with Malachi's "shall suddenly come to his temple." The child presented under the law is the Lord of the temple himself. This is why the opening address, "thy Majesty," is apt: the feast takes place in the earthly house of the divine King.

Malachi also explains why the prayer turns immediately from Christ's presentation to the Church's purification:

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

The collect's "pure and clean hearts" is thus not sentimental innocence. It is the purification required by the Lord's coming. The people who ask to be presented to God must be refined by the one who comes to his temple and makes righteous offering possible.

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel is St. Luke ii. 22. It supplies the narrative setting named in the collect:

And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons.

The collect takes its wording directly from this scene, but it interprets it through the Incarnation. The child is truly brought by Mary and Joseph in obedience to the law; yet he is also "thy only-begotten Son" in "substance of our flesh." His submission to the law is not a denial of divine majesty, but the humility by which the eternal Son enters the condition he came to redeem.

The Gospel then gives Simeon's confession, the source of the Church's Nunc Dimittis:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Simeon's words connect the collect with both Epiphany and the Church's daily prayer. The one presented in the temple is God's salvation, light for the Gentiles, and glory for Israel. The collect asks that those who have seen this salvation may themselves be brought before God with hearts made clean.

The Gospel also refuses to make the feast merely serene:

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

The same Christ who is light and glory is also a sign spoken against. The collect's desire for "pure and clean hearts" therefore includes judgment, repentance, and the revealing of hidden thoughts. Presentation before God requires purification by the Lord who searches the heart.

Historical Source

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere place the collect among the holy-day collects drawn from older Latin sources rather than newly composed at the Reformation:

The Collect for S. Thomas' Day dates from 1549: that of the Conversion of S. Paul is derived from the Latin: and then follow a series with a similar origin comprising those for the Purification, Annunciation, and S. Mark's Day.

Their note prints the Latin original behind the English collect:

The Purification. ' Omnipotens sempiterne, Deus majestatem tuam supplices exoramus, ut sicut unigenitus Filius tuus hodierna die cum nostrae carnis substantia in templo est praesentatus, ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus praesentari. Per eundem.'

This source explains the collect's exact verbal logic. The English "in substance of our flesh" corresponds to the Latin "cum nostrae carnis substantia," and "pure and clean hearts" translates the petition for "purificatis ... mentibus," purified minds or hearts. The 1928 prayer is therefore an inherited Western collect, not a modern paraphrase.

Anglican Interpretation

Edward Meyrick Goulburn gives a direct interpretation of the feast's title. He notes that John Cosin supplied the alternative title "The Presentation of Christ in the Temple," and reads that title as a return to the older, Christ-centered emphasis of the day:

It was Bishop Cosin, who at the last Revision prefixed to this Collect the alternative title, "The Presentation of Christ in the Temple." In Gregory's Sacramentary, where the Collect in its present shape is first found, the Festival is called "Hypapante" (or "Meeting,") a title which points to the incident of the meeting between Simeon and Christ, as that which is the leading-thought of the day.

Goulburn then explains why the collect itself supports the 1928 book's first title:

The Collect to which the title is prefixed makes not the smallest direct mention of the Blessed Virgin, or her purification; the great event commemorated by the Festival--that to which all other incidents of the same day were only subordinate--is the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

This does not erase Mary's obedience in Luke 2. It orders the feast around Christ. The Purification remains part of the Gospel event, but the collect and the 1928 heading direct worshippers to the Lord who comes to his temple.

Goulburn's clause-by-clause exposition also clarifies the collect's doctrinal weight:

"In substance of our flesh." Our flesh here means our whole nature, with every constituent part of it, body, soul, and spirit; and the word "substance" may usefully remind us of the reality of Christ's humanity.

The collect is therefore a small doctrinal confession of the Incarnation. The Son's presentation is not a temporary appearance in human likeness, but the presentation of the one who has truly taken human nature.

Goulburn reads the petition for "pure and clean hearts" as an appeal for real inward purification and final presentation by Christ:

In the original it is, "with purified minds"; and "purified" is better than "pure," inasmuch as the latter does not necessarily imply, as the former does, that the mind or heart is impure originally, and needs to be made pure.

The prayer's purification language is consequently neither moral self-confidence nor mere ceremonial memory. It is a petition that God would make impure hearts clean, so that the Church may be presented to him through Christ.

John Henry Blunt supplies a complementary historical and ritual note. He identifies the feast's older Eastern name and its relation to Simeon and Anna:

The ancient and present name for it in the Eastern Church is the Hypapante of our Lord Jesus Christ; that is, the meeting of our Lord with Simeon and Anna in the Temple.

Blunt also explains why the feast falls forty days after Christmas and how the Gospel yields the Nunc Dimittis:

The festival is placed at forty days' distance from Christmas, as that was the interval directed by the law between the day of birth and the day when the mother presented herself for readmission to the congregation, and her infant son for an offering to the Lord.

The calendar date is thus exegetical rather than arbitrary. February 2 is forty days from Christmas, and the collect prays the theological meaning of Luke 2: the incarnate Son is presented under the law, and his people ask to be presented by him with hearts made clean.

Use in Worship and Devotion

In the 1928 BCP, this collect belongs to the fixed holy-day propers in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels." It is appointed with Malachi iii and Luke ii, and it also resonates with the Proper Preface for the Purification, Annunciation, and Transfiguration, where the Prayer Book says that in the mystery of the Word made flesh God has caused new light to shine in the heart.

Devotionally, the collect may be prayed as a concise rule for receiving the Presentation. It teaches worshippers to behold Christ truly incarnate, to hear Malachi's warning of purifying judgment, to join Simeon's confession of salvation and light, and to ask that their own hearts be made fit for presentation before God. The feast therefore joins Christmas, Epiphany, and the approach to Lent: the Word made flesh is light for the nations, but he is also the refiner who purifies his people.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP)
• Candlemas in Anglican Worship

External Links

• 1928 Common Prayer: The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book
• Society of Archbishop Justus: 1928 BCP Propers PDF
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
• Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer, Presentation/Purification
• John Henry Blunt, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, Presentation/Purification