Collect for St. James the Apostle (1928 BCP)

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Collect for St. James the Apostle (1928 BCP) is the appointed collect for Saint James the Apostle on July 25 in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The prayer remembers James's prompt obedience to Christ's call, sets that obedience beside his martyrdom and the Gospel's warning about ambition, and asks that the Church may forsake "worldly and carnal affections" in order to follow God's commandments.

Text of the Collect

GRANT, O merciful God, that, as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect begins with mercy because the obedience it seeks is a gift before it is a duty. James leaves "his father and all that he had" in the Gospel call of the sons of Zebedee; the congregation therefore asks for freedom from rival loves, not merely for admiration of an apostle. Its movement is exact: Christ calls, James follows without delay, and the Church prays to be made ready to follow God's commandments with the same undivided promptness.

And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

[2]

Appointed Epistle and Gospel

The 1928 Epistle, Acts 11:27-12:3, is "for the Epistle" rather than a continuous lesson beginning with James. It sets his martyrdom inside the Church's life at Antioch and Jerusalem: famine relief, apostolic fellowship, Herodian violence, and the first apostolic death recorded in the New Testament. The collect's request for detachment from "worldly and carnal affections" therefore belongs in a world where following Christ may cost both security and life.

Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.

[3]

The Gospel, Matthew 20:20-28, answers the sons of Zebedee's desire for royal places with Christ's cup, baptism, and servanthood. It does not cancel apostolic honor, but it transfigures honor into suffering witness and ministry. For St. James, the promise "Ye shall drink indeed of my cup" is read beside Acts 12, where the cup becomes martyrdom.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.

[4]

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

[5]

Prayer Book History

Procter and Frere place St. James among the Reformation holy-day collects. Their account explains why the 1928 prayer is not a medieval invocation of the saint, but a reformed collect that remembers apostolic obedience and turns it into a petition for the Church.

When the Kalendar was reformed it was necessary to compose a considerable number of new Collects, since many of the old Collects were mainly prayers for the saints' intercession.

[6]

Then follows a series of Reformation Collects for the festivals of SS. Philip and James (which has also a new Epistle), of S. Barnabas (which has the Roman in place of the Sarum Gospel), of S. John Baptist (with a new Epistle), of S. Peter and of S. James (with a new Epistle).

[7]

The official Church of England 1662 text preserves the older English Prayer Book proper. The American 1928 Standard Book retains the same collect, Epistle, and Gospel, while its printed collect includes the fuller phrase "through the same Jesus Christ our Lord."

Grant, O merciful God, that as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[8]

Anglican Interpretation

Evan Daniel gives a concise reading of the collect's structure. His summary is useful because it notices that the prayer's moral petition is not vague renunciation, but a direct imitation of James's readiness under Christ's command.

The Collect was written in 1549. It consists of - 1. A commemoration of the Apostle's leaving all to follow Christ; 2. A prayer that we may show a similar promptness in following God's holy commandments.

[9]

Daniel also glosses the collect's phrase "carnal affections" as spiritual conflict, so that the petition asks for ordered desire as well as external obedience.

"Leaving his father." Cf. St. Matt. iv. 22, "They immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him." "Carnal affections," desires that war against the spirit.

[10]

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book gives the feast a wider liturgical setting. St. James is not treated as a detached heroic figure; the feast is placed within ancient calendars, the company of Peter and John, the Gospel's rebuke of ambition, and the New Testament witness to his death.

The festival of St. James, the brother of St. John the Divine, is not noticed in the Lectionary of St. Jerome, but has a Collect appointed in St. Gregory's Sacramentary, and is also in the ancient English Calendars of Bede and of King Athelstan's Psalter. In the Eastern Church it is kept on April 30th, but in the Western it has always been observed on July 25th.

[11]

St. James was the first of the Apostles who suffered Martyrdom, and the only one whose death is recorded in the New Testament. The fact of his death is told us in the modern English Epistle of the day, but of its circumstances nothing more is known than that he suffered through the hatred of Herod Agrippa.

[12]

Clause-by-Clause Reading

The address, "Grant, O merciful God," makes the whole prayer a request for mercy. The Church does not presume that it can imitate an apostle by its own resolution.

"As thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had" names the concrete cost of Christ's call. It points first to Matthew 4:21-22, where James and John leave the ship and their father, and then to the collect's present petition for detachment from rival loves.

"Without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him" joins obedience to discipleship. James's obedience is not abstract moral effort; it is an answer to the Son's personal call.

"So we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections" turns commemoration into conversion. The feast is not satisfied with venerating James from a distance; it asks that disordered desire be forsaken in the worshipper.

"May be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments" connects the collect to both appointed readings. The Epistle shows the cost of faithful witness; the Gospel teaches that Christ's servants must drink his cup, reject domination, and become ministers and servants.

"Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord" returns the whole prayer to Christ, who called James, interpreted greatness as service, and gave his life "a ransom for many."

Use in Worship

In the 1928 BCP, St. James the Apostle is a fixed holy day on July 25. 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 vocation, relinquishment, ambition, obedience, and costly witness, but its primary setting is the Church's yearly remembrance of the apostle who followed Christ and became the first apostolic martyr recorded in Scripture.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Collect for St. James the Apostle; 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 James the Apostle [July 25], p. 246; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Complete collect compared word for word with local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 998-1007, and with the local Standard Book extraction tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-james-the-apostle/bcp1928-standard-st-james-pypdf.txt, PDF page index 252 / printed p. 246. The Standard Book wording "through the same Jesus Christ our Lord" is followed against the local Justus HTML's shorter "through Jesus Christ our Lord."
  2. ↑ Matthew 4:21-22, Authorized Version; Wikisource, "Bible (King James)/Matthew". This passage supplies the collect's language about James leaving his father and following Christ; wording checked against the cited Wikisource transcription.
  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 James the Apostle [July 25], "For the Epistle. Acts xi. 27, and part of Chap. xii," pp. 246-247; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Quotation checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1009-1020, and against tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-james-the-apostle/bcp1928-standard-st-james-pypdf.txt, PDF page indexes 252-253 / printed pp. 246-247.
  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 James the Apostle [July 25], "The Gospel. St. Matthew xx. 20," p. 247; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Quotation checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1032-1041, and against tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-james-the-apostle/bcp1928-standard-st-james-pypdf.txt, PDF page index 253 / printed p. 247; local Justus OCR "ho said" at line 1034 was corrected from the Standard Book's "he said."
  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 James the Apostle [July 25], "The Gospel. St. Matthew xx. 20," p. 247; 1928 Common Prayer, "The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book". Quotation checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1044-1050, and against the local Standard Book extraction, PDF page index 253 / printed p. 247.
  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," p. 552 in the 1908 Macmillan impression; Project Canterbury transcription, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13". Quotation checked against local HTML transcription tmp/revision-research/collect-for-maundy-thursday/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 970-974.
  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, p. 552; Project Canterbury transcription, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter 13". Quotation checked against local HTML transcription tmp/revision-research/collect-for-maundy-thursday/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 997-1001.
  8. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "Saint James the Apostle," official Church of England online text, collect for July 25; Church of England, "Saint James the Apostle". Quotation checked against local fetched source tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-james-the-apostle/coe-1662-st-james.txt, lines 18714-18727; URL verified during revision.
  9. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 14th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1894), "St. James the Apostle's Day," p. 286; Internet Archive scan/text, Daniel, The Prayer-book. Quotation checked against local OCR tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-andrew-s-day/daniel-prayerbook-1894.txt, lines 18930-18938; punctuation normalized.
  10. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 14th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1894), "St. James the Apostle's Day," p. 286; Internet Archive scan/text, Daniel, The Prayer-book. Quotation checked against local OCR tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-andrew-s-day/daniel-prayerbook-1894.txt, lines 18940-18943; OCR "afections" corrected to "affections."
  11. ↑ 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), note on "Saint James the Great," p. 336; Internet Archive scan, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Quotation checked against local OCR tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-mark-s-day/blunt-annotated-bcp-djvu.txt, lines 71475-71484; OCR spacing normalized.
  12. ↑ Church of England; John Henry Blunt, ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, new edition (London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895), note on "Saint James the Great," p. 337; Internet Archive scan, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer. Quotation checked against local OCR tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-mark-s-day/blunt-annotated-bcp-djvu.txt, lines 71615-71620; OCR "suflFered" normalized to "suffered."

External Links

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