Collect for St. Mark's Day (1928 BCP)

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Collect for St. Mark's Day (1928 BCP) is the proper collect appointed for Saint Mark the Evangelist in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The collect gives thanks for the doctrine given to the Church through Mark's Gospel and asks that Christians be established in the truth rather than carried away by false teaching. Its wording is closely joined to the appointed Epistle from Ephesians 4 and the appointed Gospel from John 15.

Text of the Collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark; Give us grace that, being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The address, "O Almighty God," places the prayer in the ordinary collect pattern of addressing God, naming a divine gift, asking for grace, and concluding through Christ. The relative clause identifies that gift as instruction given to the Church through "the heavenly doctrine" of Saint Mark. The petition then asks for stability: not novelty, excitement, or private speculation, but establishment "in the truth" of the Gospel.

Epistle and Gospel

The appointed Epistle supplies the collect's controlling phrase. The 1928 BCP reads:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

[2]

The collect compresses this Epistle into prayer. "Every blast of vain doctrine" is the Prayer Book's petitionary form of Ephesians' warning against being "carried about with every wind of doctrine." The article of faith is not treated abstractly: Christ gives evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the Church's growth into unity, maturity, and love.

The Gospel then gives the positive shape of that stability:

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you.

[3]

The Epistle warns against instability; the Gospel describes stability as abiding in Christ. Thus the collect is not merely a prayer against error. It asks for the grace by which true doctrine bears fruit in union with Christ.

Prayer Book History

The collect is not a medieval translation retained unchanged. Edward Meyrick Goulburn identifies it as a Reformation composition:

This, like most of the other Saints' Day Collects, is the handiwork of our Reformers, and made its first appearance in the Prayer Book of 1549.

[4]

Goulburn also explains why the English reformers shaped the collect around the appointed Epistle:

With the view of weaving into the prayer some passage of Holy Scripture found in the services of the day, they added three verses to the Epistle in the Missal of Sarum, thus embracing the words, "that we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine."

[5]

The 1662 English Prayer Book preserves the same structure, though with English punctuation and capitalization slightly different from the 1928 American Standard Book:

O Almighty God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark: Give us grace, that, being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[6]

The Prayer Book Dictionary confirms both the 1549 origin and the dependence on the Epistle:

St. Mark (1549). The Petition, based on Eph. 4 14 (from the Epistle), originally ran: "Give us grace so to be established by Thy holy Gospel that we be not like children carried away," etc.

[7]

Theological Interpretation

The collect's doctrine language is not generic. Goulburn notes that the St. Mark and St. John collects are unusual among evangelist collects because they refer chiefly to doctrine rather than to biographical incidents:

But the Collects of the Festivals of the two other Evangelists--St. Mark and St. John--do not recite any fact connected with them, but refer only to their doctrine. The Church has received instruction through the doctrine of St. Mark, illumination through the doctrine of St. John.

[8]

Goulburn then interprets the petition clause by clause. To be "not like children" is to be freed from religious fickleness:

The petition of the Collect is that we may not be fickle and flighty in our religion, carried away with every new view of truth, captivated, like children, with the showy and the glittering, and soon tired of "the old paths wherein is the good way," but may be built up on a solid foundation, and "established in the truth of" God's "holy Gospel."

[9]

Evan Daniel summarizes the same collect more briefly and gives its catechetical subject:

ST. MARK'S DAY. (April 25th.) Subject: Stability. The Collect first appears in the Prayer-book of 1549. It is based on the Epistle, and consists of--1. A commemoration of the service rendered to the Church by St. Mark, as an Evangelist; 2. A prayer that we may be established in the truth of the gospel.

[10]

Daniel also connects the appointed Gospel to the collect's prayer for stability:

The Gospel (St. John xv. 1-11) is our Lord's allegory of the Vine, which teaches the same lesson as the concluding portion of the Epistle: "Without me ye can do nothing."

[11]

Saint Mark and the Church's Witness

The collect's thanksgiving for "heavenly doctrine" is strengthened, rather than weakened, by Mark's own biblical story. Daniel draws the moral lesson from John Mark's failure and restoration:

The lesson of St. Mark's life is that, by God's grace, the weakest may be made strong. Though he deserted his fellow-missionaries on the first approach of danger, he afterwards proved a brave and steadfast soldier of Christ.

[12]

The Prayer Book tradition also associates Mark with the lion among the evangelists:

Mark has the lion, since his Gospel emphasises the kingly dignity of Christ. St. Luke has the ox, used in sacrifice, since he makes clear the sacrificial aspect of Christ's atoning work. St. John, who reveals most fully the Divine nature of Christ and the Mystery of the Incarnation, is symbolised by the eagle.

[13]

John Henry Blunt notes the calendar representation of Mark in the older Prayer Book tradition:

Represented--As Evangelist, with a winged lion; as a Martyr, strangled with cords.

[14]

Because the feast falls on April 25, it also touches the older Western custom of the Greater Litany. Blunt distinguishes the St. Mark's Day procession from Rogation usage:

This name, "Litania Major," was thus applied in Gaul to the Rogations, but in Rome it has always been used (as it now is throughout the Roman Church) for the Litany of St. Mark's Day, which traces itself to St. Gregory the Great.

[15]

Use in Worship

In the 1928 BCP, this collect is appointed for Saint Mark the Evangelist, April 25. It may be used at Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Holy Communion when the proper is observed according to the rubrics governing collects and holy days. Its devotional use is especially apt when praying for faithful preaching, sound catechesis, perseverance in the apostolic doctrine, and fruitful abiding in Christ.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "Collect for St. Mark's Day," Saint Mark the Evangelist [April 25], printed p. 237; compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription. Stable source: 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF.
  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 Mark the Evangelist, Epistle, Ephesians iv.7, printed p. 237. Stable source: 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF.
  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 Mark the Evangelist, Gospel, St. John xv.1, printed p. 238, with the transcription punctuation artifact "gather them. and" corrected against the Standard Book's "gather them, and". Stable source: 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF.
  4. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Day: An Exposition Critical and Devotional of the Collects Appointed at the Communion, vol. 2, 5th ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1891), "St. Mark's Day," pp. 249-250. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Goulburn, The Collects of the Day, vol. 2.
  5. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Day: An Exposition Critical and Devotional of the Collects Appointed at the Communion, vol. 2, 5th ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1891), "St. Mark's Day," pp. 249-250, discussing the addition of Ephesians iv.14-16. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Goulburn, The Collects of the Day, vol. 2.
  6. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), Cambridge University Press online edition, "Saint Mark's Day," The Collect. Stable source: Church of England, Book of Common Prayer, Saint Mark's Day.
  7. ↑ George Harford, Morley Stevenson, and John Walton Tyrer, eds., The Prayer Book Dictionary (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1912), "Collects," no. 74, "St. Mark," p. 219. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of The Prayer Book Dictionary.
  8. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Day: An Exposition Critical and Devotional of the Collects Appointed at the Communion, vol. 2, 5th ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1891), "St. Mark's Day," pp. 250-251. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Goulburn, The Collects of the Day, vol. 2.
  9. ↑ Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Day: An Exposition Critical and Devotional of the Collects Appointed at the Communion, vol. 2, 5th ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1891), "St. Mark's Day," p. 251. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Goulburn, The Collects of the Day, vol. 2.
  10. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 12th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1901), "St. Mark's Day," p. 280. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Daniel, The Prayer-book.
  11. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 12th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1901), "St. Mark's Day," p. 280. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Daniel, The Prayer-book.
  12. ↑ Evan Daniel, The Prayer-book: Its History, Language, and Contents, 12th ed. (London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1901), "St. Mark's Day," p. 280, referring to Acts xiii.13, Colossians iv.10, and 2 Timothy iv.11. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Daniel, The Prayer-book.
  13. ↑ George Harford, Morley Stevenson, and John Walton Tyrer, eds., The Prayer Book Dictionary (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1912), "Evangelists," p. 305. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of The Prayer Book Dictionary.
  14. ↑ 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 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892), Calendar note for April 25, "St. Mark, Evangelist and Martyr," p. 146. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Blunt, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer.
  15. ↑ 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 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892), "An Introduction to the Litany," pp. 219-220. Stable source: Internet Archive scan of Blunt, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer.
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