Collect for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

The Collect for the Third Sunday after Epiphany is a prayer appointed in the classical Book of Common Prayer for a Sunday within the Epiphany season. It asks God to regard the weakness of his people and to extend divine help in danger and necessity. In Anglican use, the collect belongs to a sequence of Epiphany prayers that joins the manifestation of Christ to themes of faith, healing, obedience, and the ordering of Christian life. Its language is brief, penitential, and pastoral, showing the characteristic compression of the Prayer Book collect form.

Text and Liturgical Setting

In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the collect is appointed for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany and is used with the epistle and gospel assigned to that day. In the traditional lectionary, this part of the church year follows the feast of the Epiphany and precedes the pre-Lenten Sundays when they occur. Because the number of Sundays after Epiphany varies according to the date of Easter, the collect is part of a movable seasonal pattern rather than a fixed calendar date.

The prayer begins by addressing God as one who knows human need and is able to defend his servants. Its petition asks that God would "mercifully look upon our infirmities" and stretch forth his right hand to help and defend. The imagery is biblical and direct: human beings are frail, while divine aid is powerful, personal, and active. The collect is normally said by the priest or minister at the Holy Communion and is also used at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer when the collect of the day is appointed.

As with other Prayer Book collects, the prayer has a disciplined structure. It opens with an address to God, names a condition of the worshipping people, asks for a particular grace, and concludes through Jesus Christ. This form allows the collect to gather the petitions of the congregation into one concise act of common prayer.

Theological Themes

The collect emphasizes dependence upon divine mercy. Its reference to "infirmities" is not limited to bodily sickness, although it includes the wider human condition of weakness and vulnerability. In Anglican theology, such language reflects the Prayer Book's sober account of human nature: the faithful are redeemed in Christ, yet remain in need of continual grace, pardon, and protection. The prayer therefore avoids both despair and self-confidence. It teaches the congregation to ask for help from God because God is merciful and because human strength is insufficient.

The phrase concerning God's right hand has a strong scriptural resonance. In the Bible, the right hand often signifies power, deliverance, and favor. Within Christian interpretation it also recalls the exaltation of Christ, who is confessed in the creeds as seated at the right hand of the Father. The collect does not develop that image at length, but its wording fits the broader Prayer Book habit of letting biblical language carry theological weight without extended explanation.

The collect also has a pastoral character. It is well suited to a season in which the gospel readings traditionally display Christ's authority over sickness, danger, and disorder. The prayer does not ask for triumph in abstract terms, but for help and defense amid actual weakness. This makes it a recurring expression of trust for parishes, households, and individuals who hear the collect in ordinary worship.

Place in Anglican Prayer

The collect illustrates the way Anglican liturgy forms doctrine through repeated prayer. It does not present a systematic argument, but it trains worshippers to confess their need and to seek God's aid through Christ. Its modest length is part of its effect: the congregation receives a theology of grace in a form that can be remembered, repeated, and prayed.

Later Anglican prayer books have sometimes revised the wording of traditional collects, either to modernize language or to adapt the calendar. Even where exact phrasing differs, the inherited collect remains an example of classical Prayer Book spirituality. It belongs to the same family of concise seasonal prayers as the collects for Advent, Lent, Easter, and Trinitytide, each of which gives the day a theological accent.

In parish worship, the Collect for the Third Sunday after Epiphany is not usually treated as a separate devotion, yet it contributes to the cumulative character of Anglican liturgical formation. By returning each year, when the calendar permits, it reminds the church that the manifestation of Christ is not only a doctrine to be confessed but a mercy sought in weakness.

See also

• Collect of the Day in Anglican Worship
• Epistle and Gospel in the Book of Common Prayer
• Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer
• Anglican theology