Collect for St. Bartholomew (1928 BCP)

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Collect for St. Bartholomew (1928 BCP) is the appointed collect for Saint Bartholomew the Apostle on August 24 in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The prayer asks that the Church may love, preach, and receive the Word that Bartholomew believed, so that apostolic witness becomes the Church's continuing vocation rather than a merely historical remembrance.

Text of the Collect

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect's order is important. Bartholomew first receives grace "truly to believe"; only then does he preach the Word. The Church therefore prays not for publicity or religious energy in the abstract, but for love of the apostolic Word, faithful proclamation of it, and humble reception of it.

Appointed Epistle and Gospel

The 1928 Epistle, Acts 5:12-16, does not isolate Bartholomew by name. It places his feast inside the corporate apostolic witness at Jerusalem, where signs and wonders accompany the preaching of the risen Christ and the people magnify the apostolic company.

By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)

[2]

There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

[3]

The Gospel, Luke 22:24-30, gives the feast a searching moral edge. The collect asks the Church to love, preach, and receive the Word; the Gospel shows that receiving Christ's Word means receiving his judgment on ambition. Apostolic authority is not lordship after the pattern of the nations, but service after the pattern of Christ.

And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so.

[4]

But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

[5]

Prayer Book History

Procter and Frere explain that St. Bartholomew belongs to a group of holy-day propers whose English form combines inherited Latin material with Reformation revision. In their summary, Bartholomew and Michaelmas retain the older collect and Gospel while receiving a new Epistle.

Of the remainder the festivals of S. Bartholomew and Michaelmas are alike in taking Collect and Gospel from the Latin but having a new Epistle, while the days of S. Matthew, S. Luke and SS. Simon and Jude have a new Collect as well as a new Epistle, and All Saints' Day has a new Collect.

[6]

Their note prints the Latin source, which shows how close the English petition remains to the older prayer's concern with loving, preaching, and teaching what the apostle believed.

S. Bartholomew. 'Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui hujus diei venerandam sanctamque laetitiam in beati Bartholomei Apostoli tui festivitate tribuisti: da ecclesiae tuae, quaesumus, et amare quod credidit, et praedicare quod docuit.'

[7]

The official 1662 Church of England text preserves substantially the same collect and the same appointed Acts and Luke readings. The 1928 American book therefore receives this holy day as part of the wider Prayer Book tradition, while printing the collect with the American Standard Book punctuation.

O Almighty and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word: Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[8]

Anglican Interpretation

Evan Daniel reads the collect under the theme "believing and preaching." His summary is especially useful because it keeps the article from treating Bartholomew merely as a name in the apostolic lists: the prayer commemorates grace given to him and immediately turns that grace into the Church's own petition.

The Collect is adapted from one in the Sacramentary of Gregory. It consists of - 1. A commemoration of the grace given to Bartholomew to believe and preach the word; 2. A prayer that the Church may love that same word, and preach it to others.

[9]

Daniel also records the common identification of Bartholomew with Nathanael. The article need not make that identification the foundation of the collect, but it helps explain why Anglican exposition often connects Bartholomew with John 1, Philip's witness, and the confession that Jesus is the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote.

Bartholomew is commonly identified with Nathanael on the following grounds: 1. The name Bartholomew (Bar Tholmai, i.e., son of Tholmai) is only a patronymic like Bar Jona, Barnabas, &c.; 2. Nathanael was brought to Jesus by Philip, and in three of the lists of the Apostles Philip and Bartholomew are coupled together, as though they were connected by some close bond.

[10]

The Johannine Nathanael passage gives a scriptural reason for the collect's sequence of believing before preaching. Philip first speaks the Word he has received, and Nathanael's answer becomes a confession of Christ.

Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[11]

Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

[12]

Daniel's reading of the appointed Gospel confirms the pastoral force of Luke 22 in this proper. The apostolic feast is not a celebration of rank, but a summons to humility under Christ's own service.

The Gospel (St. Luke xxii. 24-30) gives an account of the strife among the Apostles as to which of them should be accounted greatest, and our Lord's declaration that humility is the patent of nobility in His kingdom.

[13]

Clause-by-Clause Reading

"O Almighty and everlasting God" addresses the God whose Word endures beyond the apostolic generation. The collect is not antiquarian: it asks the everlasting God to keep the same Word alive in the Church's faith, preaching, and reception.

"Who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word" makes faith and preaching gifts of grace. Belief is not treated as human cleverness, and preaching is not treated as religious self-expression; both are received from God.

"Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed" turns Bartholomew's grace into the Church's petition. The Church asks not merely to preserve a text, but to love the Word as the apostle loved and believed it.

"And both to preach and receive the same" holds ministers and hearers together. The Epistle's apostolic signs stand with public witness; the Gospel warns that apostolic identity is corrupted if preaching is detached from humble reception of Christ's own teaching.

"Through Jesus Christ our Lord" closes the prayer in the one who is both preached and received. If Bartholomew is identified with Nathanael, John 1 helps show the same movement: testimony leads to confession, and confession belongs under Christ the King of Israel.

Use in Worship

In the 1928 BCP, St. Bartholomew the Apostle is a fixed holy day on August 24. The collect may be used at Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Holy Communion according to the Prayer Book's calendar and rubrics. Devotionally, it is especially apt for prayer about faithful preaching, teachable hearing, humility in office, and the Church's love for the Word it is commissioned to proclaim.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Collect for St. Bartholomew; Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, identified here as the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Saint Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], p. 249; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Complete collect compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription. The Standard Book comma after "Church" is followed against the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, which omits it.
  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," Saint Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], "For the Epistle. Acts v. 12," p. 249; 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, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Saint Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], "For the Epistle. Acts v. 12," p. 249; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Quotation checked against the Standard Book PDF, PDF page index 255 / printed p. 249.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Saint Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], "The Gospel. St. Luke xxii. 24," p. 250; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". The transcription "as be that serveth" later in the passage was checked against the Standard Book's "as he that serveth."
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Saint Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], "The Gospel. St. Luke xxii. 24," p. 250; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Quotation checked against the Standard Book PDF, PDF page index 256 / printed p. 250.
  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), chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holy Days," section on saints' day collects; Project Canterbury transcription, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13". Footnote number omitted from the quotation because the following reference quotes the note itself.
  7. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), chapter XIII, note 66 on St. Bartholomew; Project Canterbury transcription, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13". Latin orthography normalized to ASCII.
  8. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "Saint Bartholomew the Apostle," official Church of England online text, collect for August 24; Church of England, "Saint Bartholomew the Apostle". URL verified during revision.
  9. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 14th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1894), "St. Bartholomew's Day," pp. 286-287; Internet Archive scan/text, Daniel, The Prayer-book. OCR "proach" corrected to "preach."
  10. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 14th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1894), "St. Bartholomew's Day," p. 287; Internet Archive scan/text, Daniel, The Prayer-book. OCR forms "Bartliolomew," "Natlianael," "iists," and "PhiHp" corrected to the printed sense.
  11. ↑ John 1:45, Authorized Version; Wikisource, "Bible (King James)/John". Quotation checked against the cited Wikisource transcription; used here as a scriptural connection to Daniel's discussion of Bartholomew and Nathanael, not as a bare unsupported identification.
  12. ↑ John 1:49, Authorized Version; Wikisource, "Bible (King James)/John". Quotation checked against the cited Wikisource transcription; it illustrates the collect's first movement, "truly to believe."
  13. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 14th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1894), "St. Bartholomew's Day," p. 287; Internet Archive scan/text, Daniel, The Prayer-book.

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