The Collect of the Day from Sunday September 30th, which is to be repeated in the Daily Office throughout the week, is as follows:

Merciful Lord, grant to your faithful people pardon and peace; that by your grace we may be cleansed from all our sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever  Amen.

If you’re a regular pray-er of the Daily Office, you may already be intimately familiar with this prayer; it is the “Collect for Forgiveness” that is read by a lay person in the absence of a priest or bishop after the Confession.  (Even if you are a priest or bishop, if you’re paying the Office by yourself it might make more sense to read this prayer after the Confession, as you have nobody else to pronounce pardon and absolution to!)

Unless you’re using the Sunday Propers again for a mid-week service in the next couple days, it’s probably too late to point out this Collect’s double function to others in your congregation.  But you can, at least on your own, take some time this week to reflect on the Gospel of Christ’s forgiveness.  The blessed state of pardon and peace, of cleansed souls such that we can serve Christ with a “quiet” (or peaceful, unfettered, un-distracted) mind… this is the great work and gift of God.

May we all seek pardon and peace from God first, and await his consummate blessings that flow from that divine starting point.