Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

The Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity is a proper collect appointed in the Book of Common Prayer for the sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday. In the classical Anglican calendar it belongs to the long Trinity season, a period in which the Sunday propers often emphasize Christian discipleship, moral formation, and the life of grace. The collect is notable for joining the love of God with the hope of divine promises, presenting obedience not chiefly as external conformity but as the fruit of charity poured into the heart.

Text in the prayer book

In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the collect reads:

O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The prayer follows the compact structure typical of many Anglican collects. It begins with an address to God and a relative clause describing divine generosity. It then petitions for an inward gift: love for God poured into human hearts. The desired result is that the faithful may love God above all things and receive the promises of God. The collect concludes with the customary mediation through Jesus Christ.

Because it appears among the Sunday propers, the collect is used at the Holy Communion service when the proper for the day is observed. It may also be read in the Daily Office as the collect of the day, according to the rubrics and customs of a particular prayer book tradition. In this way the prayer connects Sunday Eucharistic worship with the daily pattern of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.

Theological themes

The collect gives concise expression to several characteristic themes of Anglicanism. First, it treats the Christian life as a work of divine grace. The worshipper does not ask merely for instruction or resolve, but for God to pour love into the heart. The language echoes biblical themes of inward renewal and sanctification, placing moral obedience within the larger work of God in the believer.

Second, the collect presents love as rightly ordered. The phrase loving thee above all things reflects the Augustinian and catholic idea that sin disorders human loves, while grace restores them to their proper end in God. The prayer therefore has a strong ascetical dimension without becoming severe or merely disciplinary. It asks that love for God become the governing affection by which other desires are measured.

Third, the collect binds present sanctification to eschatological hope. The good things prepared by God exceed human understanding and desire. The prayer does not define those promises in a narrow or speculative way, but leaves them within the broad biblical horizon of salvation, communion with God, and the fulfilment of divine mercy. Its language is therefore suitable for congregational prayer across differing schools of Anglican theology.

Liturgical significance

Within the Trinity season, the collect contributes to the prayer book's pattern of doctrinal and moral formation after the great feasts of the Christian year. Following Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, the Sundays after Trinity often turn attention to the ordinary and persevering life of the baptized. The collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity fits this pattern by asking for the inward charity that makes Christian obedience possible.

The prayer also illustrates the pedagogical character of the Book of Common Prayer. Its repeated use teaches doctrine through worship rather than by formal definition alone. Congregations who pray the collect learn to associate holiness with grace, love, and hope. The brevity of the text allows it to be memorized easily, while its theological density makes it suitable for preaching, catechesis, and private devotion.

In later Anglican revisions, similar themes are often retained even when the wording is modernized or when the Sunday numbering differs from the 1662 calendar. The collect's continuing value lies in its ability to hold together divine initiative and human response. It asks God to create in the faithful the love by which they may seek God above all things and receive what God has promised.