Collect for Septuagesima Sunday (1928 BCP)
Collect for Septuagesima Sunday (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for "The Sunday called Septuagesima, or the third Sunday before Lent." It opens the Prayer Book's Pre-Lenten Season with a penitential prayer for merciful deliverance, and it is read with the appointed Epistle from 1 Corinthians 9 and the Gospel of the labourers in the vineyard from St. Matthew 20.
Text of the Collect
O LORD, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
The prayer has a compact movement. It addresses God as the Lord who hears his people's prayers; it confesses that punishment for sin is just; it asks not for vindication but for merciful deliverance by God's goodness; and it places that deliverance under the glory of God's Name through Christ and in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Septuagesima therefore begins pre-Lent by teaching penitence without despair: the people are guilty, yet still "thy people"; chastened, yet asking for mercy.
Place in Pre-Lent
The 1928 BCP prints Septuagesima under the heading "PRE-LENTEN SEASON," after the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany and before Sexagesima. A modern source catalogue summarizes the older source of the appointment:
The three Sundays before Lent - their counting names taken from the Latin numerals for the seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth days before Easter - are all from the Sarum Use, with one exception in Quinquagesima, which is Cranmer's 1549.
Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the liturgical turn from Epiphany joy toward Lenten self-examination:
The design of the services on these Sundays is to call us away from the joy of Christmas, in order to prepare ourselves for the fasting and humiliation of Lent; from the manner of Christ's coming into the world, to think of our sins, which were the cause of the sufferings of His life.
John Henry Blunt likewise reads Septuagesima as a hinge between Christmas-Epiphany joy and Lent's sorrow:
When these various modes of keeping Lent had been all superseded under the reforming hand of St. Gregory the Great by our present custom, the Church still retained the penitential tone of the services for these three Sundays, and they thus form a link between the joyous seasons of Christmas and Epiphany, and the deeply sorrowful one which begins with Ash-Wednesday and reaches its climax in the Holy Week.
Clause-by-Clause Reading
The opening petition, "favourably to hear the prayers of thy people," assumes covenant relation before it states guilt. The Church does not pray as a neutral religious society but as God's people seeking a favourable hearing. The phrase "justly punished for our offences" makes Septuagesima penitential before Ash Wednesday arrives: divine judgement is acknowledged as just, and the requested deliverance is explicitly "merciful."
Melville Scott's exposition makes that twofold movement plain:
We confess that we are under punishment, for, though a punishment of love and a discipline for future glory, it still is a punishment, and a just punishment, for our offences. The Christian must make his own the confession of the penitent thief - "We, indeed, justly."
The final clause, "for the glory of thy Name," keeps the prayer from becoming merely private relief. The Church asks that mercy, deliverance, and absolution display God's goodness. The collect is Trinitarian in shape: it prays through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost as one God.
Appointed Epistle
The Epistle appointed with this collect is 1 Corinthians 9:24-end. Its athletic images give the collect's petition a disciplined form:
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
The collect's "mercifully delivered" is therefore not an excuse for spiritual passivity. The Epistle teaches temperance, self-command, and perseverance, while the collect teaches that these disciplines still depend upon God's merciful goodness.
L. R. Tarsitano connects Paul's athletic metaphor with the Christian use of pre-Lenten discipline:
If pagans will discipline themselves for a meaningless wreath, how much more should those who claim to follow Christ discipline themselves to receive the crown of life that Christ has offered to the faithful?
Appointed Gospel
The Gospel appointed with the collect is St. Matthew 20:1-16. Its parable of the labourers in the vineyard prevents the penitential collect from turning into bargaining with God:
Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
The Gospel matches the collect's logic of mercy. The labourers receive the householder's promised generosity rather than wages scaled to merit. The collect likewise confesses offences and punishment, then appeals to God's goodness rather than to human entitlement. Septuagesima thus joins discipline and grace: the Church runs, fights, labours, and repents, but asks to be delivered by mercy.
Anglican Use
In the 1928 BCP, the collect appointed for a Sunday ordinarily serves throughout the week unless another provision is made. Septuagesima therefore gives the week before Sexagesima a penitential vocabulary: corporate prayer, confession of offence, deliverance by mercy, and the glory of God's Name. The collect can be used catechetically to teach that Lent is approached through humility before God, disciplined obedience, and confidence in divine mercy through Christ.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- Pre-Lent in the 1928 BCP
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
References
- ↑ Collect for Septuagesima Sunday, in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 1928 Book of Common Prayer, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," Pre-Lenten Season, "The Sunday called Septuagesima, or the third Sunday before Lent," pp. 118-119 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF: 1928 Standard Book PDF. The wording was compared with the local source file sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 1136-1146, correcting the local OCR comma in "who liveth and, reigneth" against the Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ New Every Morning, "Sources of the Seasonal Collects," section III, "The Pre-Lent Sundays," noting "The Sunday called Septuagesima: Sarum - Third Sunday before Lent"; Sources of the Seasonal Collects.
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised edition (London: Macmillan, 1902), chapter 13, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Sundays before Lent"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription: A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter 13.
- ↑ John Henry Blunt, ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer (London: Rivingtons, 1884), commentary on Septuagesima, transcribed at Lectionary Central: Blunt's Commentary.
- ↑ Melville Scott, The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year (London: S.P.C.K., 1902), "The Sunday called Septuagesima. Discipline."; Lectionary Central transcription: Scott's Commentary.
- ↑ 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, appointed as the Epistle for Septuagesima in The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," pp. 119-120 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile; 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ L. R. Tarsitano, "A Worthy Prize," sermon for Septuagesima at Saint Andrew's Church, Savannah, February 20, 2000, transcribed at Lectionary Central: A Worthy Prize.
- ↑ St. Matthew 20:13-15, appointed as the Gospel for Septuagesima in The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels," pp. 119-120 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile; 1928 Standard Book PDF.