Collect for Third Sunday after Epiphany (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Third Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP) is the appointed collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It prays for God to look mercifully on the infirmities of his people and to stretch forth his right hand to help and defend them.

Text of the Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect appears in the 1928 Prayer Book's cycle of propers, where it is paired with the day's Epistle and Gospel and used to gather the themes of the Sunday into a single public prayer.[2]

Theological Themes

The collect is brief, but its theology is not thin. It confesses human weakness, divine mercy, and the need for active help rather than distant sympathy. Anglican writers on the Prayer Book have long treated this kind of collect as a school of dependence, because the Church learns to pray its need before it tries to explain it.[3]

The prayer's language of God's "right hand" echoes biblical imagery for power, deliverance, and favor. It therefore fits the Epiphany season, when the Church meditates on Christ's manifestation and on the help that comes from God in weakness and danger.[4]

Place in Anglican Prayer

Like other collect pages, this article belongs to the Prayer Book's habit of teaching doctrine through repeated prayer. The collect is not a private meditation tacked onto the day; it is the Church's public plea for grace, designed to be heard in the context of the whole office or Eucharistic propers.

Its emphasis on infirmity, necessity, help, and defense also connects naturally to Morning Prayer, Holy Communion, and parish catechesis. The collect can be taught as a compact witness to human dependence and God's saving initiative.

See also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ The 1928 U.S. Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, [1].
  2. ↑ The 1928 U.S. Book of Common Prayer, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany. [2]
  3. ↑ James Hodges, "Blessed be the Lord: Reflections on the Benedictus," Anglican Compass. [3]
  4. ↑ The Church of England, "Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)." [4]
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