Collect for Second Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Second Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the Second Sunday after Trinity. It asks God, who never fails to help and govern those whom he forms in "stedfast fear and love," to keep the Church under his providence and to give a perpetual fear and love of his holy Name. In the 1928 propers it is joined to 1 St. John iii. 13-24 and St. Luke xiv. 16-24: the Epistle tests love by sacrificial charity, and the Gospel warns that ordinary excuses can become refusal of the heavenly banquet.

Text of the Collect

O LORD, who never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

Place in Trinitytide

The collect follows the First Sunday after Trinity, where the Church has prayed for grace to please God "both in will and deed." The Second Sunday after Trinity keeps the same moral seriousness, but shifts the accent to divine providence and holy affection. The opening clause does not present fear and love as self-made virtues. God "bring[s] up" his people in them, and therefore does not abandon those whom he governs. The petition "under the protection of thy good providence" asks for preservation in the same school in which fear and love are learned.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the broader order of the post-Trinity propers as inherited practical instruction:

The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the Sundays after Trinity are taken in the order in which they stood in the Sarum Missal. The Epistles are a series of exhortations to the practice of Christian virtues, and form part of that dislocated series of readings taken in order from S. Paul's Epistles which has already been noticed. The Gospels are selected from the parables, miracles, and conversations of our Lord, and in many cases are meant to be illustrative of the teaching of the Epistle.

[2]

This helps explain the collect's pairing of inward disposition and outward government. "Fear" is reverent fidelity before God's Name, not servile dread; "love" is the charity the Epistle commands; "providence" is God's active keeping, not a vague religious optimism. The Church prays to remain under that providential keeping because the appointed Gospel shows how easily invited people turn aside from grace when lesser possessions, work, and domestic claims become ultimate.

Appointed Epistle

The Epistle is 1 St. John iii. 13-24. It begins with the world's hatred, but the passage is not merely defensive. The mark of passing "from death unto life" is love of the brethren, and that love is measured by Christ's self-giving:

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

[3]

The collect's "fear and love of thy holy Name" therefore cannot remain abstract. Saint John immediately turns from Christ's laying down his life to the concrete case of a brother in need. The prayer asks God to make holy fear and love perpetual because temporary or verbal charity is not enough.

But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

[4]

The latter part of the Epistle also clarifies the collect's confidence in providence. The Church asks to be kept by God; Saint John says that Christian assurance is tied to believing on the Name of Jesus Christ and loving one another as he commanded. To be governed by God is to be drawn into obedient communion with the Son and the Spirit.

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

[5]

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel is St. Luke xiv. 16-24, the parable of the great supper. The words "Come; for all things are now ready" make the invitation gracious and complete. The danger lies not in ignorance of the invitation, but in preferring ordinary goods to the feast.

A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.

[6]

The parable also connects the collect to charity. Those first invited refuse; the poor, maimed, halt, and blind are brought in. The providence prayed for in the collect is not a private shelter from inconvenient neighbors. It keeps the Church within God's ordering, where the divine banquet is opened to the needy and where love cannot be only "in word."

Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

[7]

The final warning is severe: refusal of the invitation becomes exclusion from the supper. The collect's "perpetual fear and love" is thus pastoral realism. It teaches the Church to fear the holy Name enough not to trivialize grace, and to love the holy Name enough to receive and imitate the generosity of the feast.

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

[8]

Historical Development

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book prints the Second Sunday after Trinity collect with a Latin source immediately beneath it. His apparatus identifies the Latin prayer in the old Western tradition and shows why the English collect is not a loose devotional paraphrase but a received ecclesiastical prayer:

Sancti nominis Tui, Domine, timorem pariter et amorem fac nos habere perpetuum; quia nunquam Tua gubernatione destituis, quos in soliditate Tuae dilectionis instituis. Per Dominum.

[9]

Cosin's notes record the older English form before the 1662 revision. Compared with the 1928 American wording, this earlier form has the same central vocabulary of holy Name, perpetual fear and love, divine help, and divine government, but the later form moves "help and govern" to the opening relative clause and adds the explicit petition for protection under providence:

The Collect for the second Sunday after Trinity, before 1662, was: Lord, make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy name, for Thou never failest to help and govern them whom Thou doest bring up in Thy steadfast love; Grant this, &c.

[10]

John Dowden, discussing the proposed 1689 revision, quotes an expanded replacement collect for this Sunday and judges it inferior to the inherited Prayer Book form. His criticism is useful because it shows the literary and liturgical strength of the received collect: it is brief, balanced, and not overloaded with explanatory clauses.

These specimens sufficiently illustrate the mistake of overcrowding thought, which is the common vice of the work of 1689. Moreover, as compared with the untouched Collects of the Prayer Book, it will also be admitted that they fail in rhythmical beat and musical cadence.

[11]

The 1928 American collect therefore receives a mature English Prayer Book form rather than a generic prayer about providence. Its language is concise: God never fails; God helps and governs; God brings up his people in fear and love; the Church asks to be kept under good providence; the desired fruit is perpetual reverence and love of God's holy Name.

Theological Use

Clause by clause, the collect teaches sanctification as dependence on God's rule. "Who never failest to help and govern" joins mercy and authority: divine help is not separated from divine government. "Those whom thou dost bring up" makes Christian growth the work of God. "Stedfast fear and love" refuses both irreverent familiarity and loveless dread. "Under the protection of thy good providence" locates the believer inside God's ordering care. "Perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name" asks that reverence and charity not be occasional moods but the abiding habit of the Church.

The appointed lessons keep that doctrine from becoming inward-looking. The Epistle says love must become deed and truth toward the brother in need. The Gospel says the invited must not excuse themselves from the feast and must see the poor and disabled brought in. The collect is therefore a prayer for persevering discipleship after Pentecost: a governed life, protected by providence, fearing and loving God's Name, and answering the invitation of grace with concrete charity.

Use in Worship

In 1928 BCP use, this collect is said as the collect of the day for the Second Sunday after Trinity at Holy Communion and in the offices when that Sunday is appointed. It is especially useful for catechesis on providence, holy fear, charity, and response to grace. The first clause teaches confidence in God's unfailing governance; the middle petition teaches trust under providence; the final petition teaches that holy fear and love belong together. Its Epistle and Gospel make the lesson plain: the Christian who is governed by God must love in deed and must not refuse the great supper prepared by grace.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," exact prayer "Collect for Second Sunday after Trinity" under "The Second Sunday after Trinity," p. 190; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928. Complete collect compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; the transcription's apparatus mark after "those" was not treated as collect text.
  2. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 550, chapter XIII; Internet Archive scan/OCR, A new history of the Book of common prayer, with a rationale of its offices.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, 1 St. John iii. 13, p. 190; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, 1 St. John iii. 17-18, p. 190; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928.
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, 1 St. John iii. 23-24, p. 190; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928.
  6. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Luke xiv. 16, p. 190; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928. Capitalization from the drop-cap source was retained.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Luke xiv. 21-22, p. 191; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Second Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Luke xiv. 23-24, p. 191; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, The Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book of 1928.
  9. ↑ 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. 305, note and Latin source printed under "The Second Sunday after Trinity"; Internet Archive scan/OCR, The annotated book of common prayer. OCR "Tua3" was regularized to "Tuae."
  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 Parker, 1855), p. 145, note on the Second Sunday after Trinity; Internet Archive scan/OCR, The works of ... John Cosin, now first collected.
  11. ↑ John Dowden, The Workmanship of the Prayer Book in Its Literary and Liturgical Aspects (London: Methuen & Co., 1899), p. 137, discussion of the proposed 1689 collect for the Second Sunday after Trinity; Google Books scan, The Workmanship of the Prayer Book.
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