Collect of the Day (1928 BCP)

Collect of the Day (1928 BCP) names the proper collect appointed for a Sunday, holy day, or other occasion in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It is not a single prayer text with one fixed wording. Rather, it is the liturgical role filled by the appointed collect for the day: first in the Communion propers, and then by reference in Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.

Prayer Book Placement

In Holy Communion, the Collect of the Day stands after the preparatory opening material and before the Epistle. This location makes it the first proper of the Communion office, gathering the occasion's petition before the appointed lessons are read.

Then shall the Priest say the Collect of the Day. And after the Collect the Minister appointed shall read the Epistle.

Morning Prayer receives the same proper collect when the Communion office is not being read as part of the service. The rubric prevents needless duplication when Morning Prayer and Holy Communion are joined.

Then shall follow the Collect for the Day, except when the Communion Service is read; and then the Collect for the day shall be omitted here.

Evening Prayer gives the Collect of the Day a parallel place before the fixed evening collects. In both daily offices, therefore, the proper collect ties the daily round of prayer to the Sunday, feast, fast, or season being observed.

Then shall be said the Collect of the Day, and after that the Collects and Prayers following.

Not a Single Appointed Text

Because this article concerns the liturgical function "Collect of the Day," there is no complete prayer titled exactly "Collect of the Day" to reproduce. The actual text changes with the appointed proper. For example, the collect for the First Sunday in Advent, Easter Day, Trinity Sunday, or All Saints' Day supplies the day's collect when that day is observed.

The opening rubric for the propers explains how a Sunday collect continues to govern the following weekdays unless the Prayer Book provides otherwise.

The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the Week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered.

Historical and Liturgical Meaning

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the collect as a distinct kind of liturgical prayer, not merely a devotional paragraph. Its brevity, address, petition, and conclusion are part of its inherited form.

A Collect is a form of prayer with special characteristics of its own; these stand out the more clearly by contrast with two other types of prayer, viz. Litany, which is prayer in dialogue, and Eucharistic prayer.

They also note the classical collect's compressed shape:

The typical Collect of the old Roman sacramentaries, from which collections a great number of the Collects of the Prayer Book is taken, has also a structure, which is markedly its own, being distinguished by unity of thought and terseness of expression.

Anthony Sparrow, a seventeenth-century Anglican expositor, explains the traditional name by the priest's act of gathering the people's prayers into one offered petition. This is a theological explanation, not only an etymology: the collect is common prayer voiced in a concise form to which the people answer "Amen."

The Priest doth herein Collect the Devotions of the people, and offer them up to God; for though it hath been the constant practice from the beginning, for the people to bear a vocal part by their Suffrages and Answers in the publick service of God.

Percy Dearmer's practical directions show why the Collect of the Day belongs naturally to Sundays and holy days: the appointed collect, Epistle, and Gospel mark the occasion liturgically.

The Lord's Supper should be celebrated at least on every Sunday and holy day, whenever there is a special collect, epistle, and gospel provided in the Prayer Book.

J. B. Powell, writing for the Society of the Holy Cross in 1878, opens his paper by quoting J. H. Blunt's account of the collect as the occasion's prayerful keynote. The attribution matters because the passage is Blunt's, preserved in Powell's discussion of how collects are combined and used.

The primary use of the Collect is to give a distinctive tone to the Eucharistic service, striking the keynote of prayer for the particular occasion on which the Sacrifice is offered.

Katharine S. Oliver's mid-twentieth-century talks connect this weekly use of the collect to Anglican formation. The collect is not only a rubric to obey but a repeated prayer by which doctrine, Scripture, and Christian time are digested.

Part of this plan is a weekly prayer called the Collect, which on page 90 we read "is appointed for Sunday, and shall serve the week after." We know that we have to hear ideas again and again, (William James says five times at least) before we really absorb them, "inwardly digest them," a collect says. How we pray and what we believe must always be inseparable.

Relation to Scripture

The Collect of the Day normally gathers the scriptural and seasonal emphasis of the appointed proper. In the Communion office it immediately precedes the Epistle and Gospel, so the prayer frames the hearing of Scripture. In the daily offices it carries the same weekly or festal emphasis into morning and evening prayer.

This pattern is especially clear in the older Western and Anglican tradition summarized by Procter and Frere: the first half of the church year follows the saving events of Christ's incarnation, manifestation, passion, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Holy Ghost; the Trinity season then turns those mysteries toward Christian obedience and growth. The collect is therefore a concise prayer at the intersection of calendar, doctrine, and Scripture.

Clause-by-Clause Use

Although no single "Collect of the Day" text exists, each appointed collect is normally read clause by clause in the same way:

• Address - the prayer names God, often by a divine attribute or saving act.
• Ground - it recalls what God has done, revealed, promised, or commanded.
• Petition - it asks for grace fitting to the Sunday, feast, fast, or occasion.
• Purpose - it often names the fruit sought in the Church's life.
• Conclusion - it offers the prayer through Jesus Christ, commonly with Trinitarian force.

This structure explains why a collect can be brief and still theologically dense. The 1928 BCP's appointed collects often connect directly with the Epistle and Gospel: the prayer asks the grace that the lessons proclaim, and the lessons reveal the doctrine that the prayer turns into petition.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

In parish worship, the Collect of the Day helps clergy and laity hear the service as one whole rather than as disconnected parts. The salutation and "Let us pray" introduce the appointed collect; the Epistle and Gospel then unfold the scriptural context; the Creed, sermon, intercession, and sacrament continue the same act of worship.

In catechesis, the Collect of the Day is a practical entry point into Anglican doctrine. A teacher can ask what the collect says about God, what it asks God to do, what Scripture it echoes, and how its petition should shape repentance, faith, and obedience during the week.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Collect for First Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Trinity Sunday (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Holy Communion
• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Morning Prayer
• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Evening Prayer
• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Collects, Epistles, and Gospels