Collect for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It asks the God who is more ready to hear than human beings are to pray to pour down mercy, forgive sins that trouble the conscience, and give undeserved goods through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect begins with God's readiness before it names human need. Prayer is not a means of overcoming divine reluctance; it is the Church's answer to a mercy already more abundant than its asking. The petition then moves through three linked requests: mercy poured down, sins forgiven where conscience is afraid, and good things given even where the worshipper is not worthy to ask.

The final clause, "through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ," controls the prayer's theology. The collect does not say that conscience is healed by self-examination alone, or that gifts are earned by devotion. It asks for pardon and blessing through Christ, the mediator whose merits make bold prayer possible.

Historical Source

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere print the Latin source among the originals of the Trinitytide collects:

Twelfth. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuæ et merita supplicum excedis et vota; effunde super nos misericordiam tuam, ut dimittas quæ conscientia metuit, et adjicias quod oratio non præsumit.

[2]

The modern Anglican source index summarizes its Prayer Book origin:

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Sarum - Varied in 1662

"Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray..."

[3]

The 1928 American form therefore stands in the older Western collect tradition as received through the English Prayer Book. Its 1662 shape is especially visible in the English balance of "desire or deserve," a phrase John Dowden singled out when discussing the translators' handling of compact Latin prayers:

Phrases like "quos in soliditate tuae dilectionis instituis" (second Sunday after Trinity); "cujus providentia in sui dispositione non fallitur" (eighth after Trinity); "et merita supplicum excedis et vota" (twelfth after Trinity), are all happily dealt with, perhaps more particularly the last, with its haunting alliteration "and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve."

[4]

The official Church of England text of the 1662 Prayer Book gives substantially the same collect, with 1662 punctuation and spelling:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

[5]

The comparison is useful because the American 1928 text keeps the same theological architecture while using the American semicolon after "deserve." Both forms emphasize that divine mercy exceeds both the worshipper's petitions and the worshipper's deserts.

Mercy, Conscience, and Mediation

The Common Prayer commentary from the Prayer Book Society of Canada states the collect's central doctrinal theme:

The single bold theme of today's Collect, Epistle and Gospel is that it is only through the atoning merits and mediation of Jesus Christ that we dare to hope for the outflow of God's goodness to us. God is the Giver of every good and perfect gift and he alone, through his Son, can forgive sin.

[6]

This reading follows the collect clause by clause. God's readiness to hear is not separated from Christ's mediation; the abundance of mercy is directed to real sins; conscience is not flattered, but cleansed; and the "good things" requested are received as gifts, not wages.

The same commentary applies the phrase "more than either we desire or deserve" through the parable of the prodigal son:

Remember the story of the prodigal son who returns to his father asking only to be treated as a hired servant, but instead receives a loving and forgiving welcome as a son who was lost but is now found - an affectionate embrace, the finest clothing and a wonderful banquet (Luke 15. 11-32).

[7]

That connection shows why the collect's confidence is penitential rather than presumptuous. The Church asks beyond desert because the Father gives beyond the returning sinner's request; but the sinner returns, confesses, and receives mercy through grace.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed Epistle is 2 Corinthians 3:4-9. It begins by denying that Christian sufficiency arises from the self:

SUCH trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

[8]

The Epistle gives scriptural depth to the collect's humility. The worshipper is "not worthy to ask," and the apostle is "not sufficient" of himself. In both, Christian boldness is not self-confidence but trust "through Christ to God-ward."

Paul then contrasts the ministration of condemnation with the ministration of the Spirit:

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

[9]

The collect's "abundance of thy mercy" is therefore not a vague easing of religious anxiety. It is the mercy of the new covenant, where condemnation is overcome by righteousness, and the Spirit gives life.

Appointed Gospel

The appointed Gospel is Mark 7:31-37, the healing of the deaf man with an impediment in his speech:

And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

[10]

This Gospel connects the collect's prayer for divine hearing with Christ's opening of human hearing. The God who is "more ready to hear than we to pray" is revealed in the Son who looks to heaven, sighs over human infirmity, and opens the ears and tongue of the afflicted man.

Charles Kingsley made exactly that connection in a sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity:

He looked up to heaven, we may believe, because he looked to God the Father; to God, of whom the glorious collect tells us, that he is more ready to hear than we to pray, and is wont to give more than either we desire or deserve.

[11]

Kingsley then interprets the healing as a sign of God's opposition to death, disease, and disorder:

He looked up to the Father, who is the fountain of life, of order, of health, of usefulness; who hates all death, disease, infirmity; who wills that none should perish, body or soul.

[12]

The Gospel thus gives the collect a concrete christological center. The Church asks the Father for mercy through the Son's merits and mediation; the Gospel shows the Son bringing mercy to embodied human need and restoring praise to the human tongue.

Liturgical and Theological Use

In the 1928 BCP, this collect belongs to the Communion propers for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity and may shape the ordinary use of the collect of the day in Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, and weekly devotion. Its language is especially suited to penitence before worship: it names a fearful conscience, but does so inside the greater truth that God is already more ready to hear than the Church is to pray.

The collect also guards against two opposite errors. Against despair, it teaches that God's mercy is more abundant than the worshipper's fear. Against presumption, it teaches that the goods requested are not deserved and can be asked only through Christ. With the Epistle, it confesses that sufficiency is of God; with the Gospel, it prays to the Father whom Christ reveals as ready to hear, heal, forgive, and give.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "Collect for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity," in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," under "The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity," printed pp. 206-207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF. The collect text was compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription and checked against the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 59. The transcription's split form "de sire" was checked against the PDF text and corrected to "desire."
  2. ↑ 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), Additional Note to chapter XIII, p. 553, "The following are the originals of the Collects for the Sundays after Trinity"; Project Canterbury transcription by Charles Wohlers. Latin ligatures have been retained as MediaWiki character entities.
  3. ↑ New Every Morning Anglican Fellowship, "Sources of the Seasonal Collects," section VIII, "The Sundays after Trinity," "The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity"; Sources of the Seasonal Collects.
  4. ↑ John Dowden, The Workmanship of the Prayer Book in Its Literary and Liturgical Aspects, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen & Co., 1899), chapter III, pp. 50-51; HTML transcription at Project Canterbury/New Scriptorium.
  5. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (Cambridge University Press, 2006 online edition), "The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity," "The Collect"; official Church of England online text.
  6. ↑ Prayer Book Society of Canada, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 4, Trinity Sunday to the Twelfth Sunday After Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications, n.d.), pp. 172-173, excerpt for "The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity"; Lectionary Central transcription, reprinted with permission of the publisher.
  7. ↑ Prayer Book Society of Canada, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 4, Trinity Sunday to the Twelfth Sunday After Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications, n.d.), pp. 172-173, excerpt for "The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity"; Lectionary Central transcription, reprinted with permission of the publisher.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Epistle. 2 Corinthians iii. 4." for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed pp. 206-207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 60.
  9. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Epistle. 2 Corinthians iii. 4." for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 60.
  10. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Gospel. St. Mark vii. 31." for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 60.
  11. ↑ Charles Kingsley, "Sermon XXV. The Sighs of Christ," in Town and Country Sermons (London: Macmillan and Co., 1861), sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity on Mark 7:34-35; Project Gutenberg HTML edition.
  12. ↑ Charles Kingsley, "Sermon XXV. The Sighs of Christ," in Town and Country Sermons (London: Macmillan and Co., 1861), sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity on Mark 7:34-35; Project Gutenberg HTML edition.
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