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Praying the Collect for Purity

One of the most famous prayers in Anglican liturgy today seems to be “The Collect for Purity” which is found near the beginning of the Communion service.  It seems like every “introduction to Anglicanism” article or series of articles eventually turns to this prayer as a quintessential example of a collect, and the enduring nature of liturgical prayer and worship.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

So I probably don’t need to tell you that this was originally a “vesting prayer” said by the celebrant alone before the actual Mass began, and that Archbishop Cranmer moved it to the beginning of the Communion liturgy itself when he first wrote the English Prayer Book.  Besides, you don’t need me to harp on about the history of liturgy too much, lest you think I’ve lost my edge when it comes to giving practical advice 😉

Ye who are used to modern liturgies (1979 Prayer Book and newer) are probably accustomed to praying the Collect for Purity with the whole congregation.  For many people, this is the one Collect they definitely have memorized.  You may be surprised to learn, though, that before the modern era of liturgical revision, this Collect was still said by the priest alone.  The first directional rubric in the 1662 Prayer Book’s Communion liturgy, for example, concludes with this sentence:

And the Priest standing at the north side of the Table shall say the Lord’s Prayer with the Collect following, the people kneeling.

It is interesting to note that in our own (2019) Prayer Book the rubric attached to this Collect reads:

The Celebrant prays (and the People may be invited to join)

which indicates that the “primary” fulfillment of this rubric is that the Celebrant says it, and the “secondary” option is that the congregation might be invited to say it too.

If you take that rubric prioritization along with the historic rubrics – that the Priest prays it alone at the holy table (or altar, as many commonly say today) – this gives us a suggestion for how we should go about praying this Collect in our worship services today.

The people were standing for the Acclamation immediately before this, so what if we all kneel to pray this prayer?  That would make sense, especially with the Summary of the Law or Decalogue following, to hear those spoken over us by the priest while we kneel.  If you’re the celebrant, you too should consider (with the historic prayer books) turning toward the altar and kneeling for the Collect for Purity.  Even if the congregation remains standing for it, the extra time and motion involved in you kneeling for the prayer and then standing up to address them in the following penitential rite will be a significant action that reinforces the message of this prayer – namely, that we need cleansing in our hearts by the Holy Spirit in order to love God perfectly and magnify his holy name in a worthy manner.

Worshiping God is kind of a big deal.  Praying that he would help us to worship, even enable us to worship, is not a prayer we should take lightly.  Go kneel before the altar, use your body’s posture and motion to express the seriousness of this prayer!

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Overview of the book of Esther

Evening Prayer in our Daily Office Lectionary begins the book of Esther in a couple days.  I had the joy and privilege of preaching all the way through this book a few years ago; it was a lot of fun, and I get kind of enthusiastic about it.  So please forgive me as occasionally stutter over my words in excitement as I talk about this book!

Subject Index of the video in case you want to skip around:

  • 00:00 – it’s an unusual book
  • 02:11 – Characters
  • 05:46 – A Tale of Two Esthers (Hebrew & Greek)
  • 09:50 – Authorship & Origin Questions
  • 13:58 – Canonical Purpose of the book of Esther
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Collect for “Proper 8”

This week’s Collect of the Day is drawn from yesterday’s position in the calendar, “Proper 8”.  This is a prayer for God’s fatherly ordering of our lives:

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

On its own, simply, this is a prayer that highlights God’s parental role over us.  If you have had children, or have cared for or ministered to children regularly, you know on an experiential level just how important a prayer like this is.  Children often have a hard time accepting or understanding the difference between the “hurtful things” and “those things that are profitable”… what they want is what they want, and that’s that!  Of course, we adults fall into the exact same mentality all the time, we’re just usually a little more sophisticated about it.  “I deserve to indulge myself today”, “Just one ___ won’t hurt me”, “I know it’s bad for me, but I can keep it under control”.  This prayer demands of us an honesty that we’re not always prepared to attain to on our own.

In the traditional calendar, this Collect was appointed for the 8th Sunday after Trinity, and was paired with Romans 8:12-17 and Matthew 7:15-21.  That epistle is very clearly in mind in the construction of this Collect:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

The Gospel contains a warning against false teachers – wolves in sheep’s clothing.  This adds to the Epistle’s concern with things that are morally and spiritually harmful or profitable the further level of doctrinal harm and profit.  It is critical that we do not scratch our “itching ears” as it is written elsewhere in the New Testament.  We must pray that God will keep, or make, us open to receive his true teaching rather than the teaching we want to hear.  Our fleshly, sinful, self-centered tendencies can easily overrule our moral, spiritual, and doctrinal commitment to Christ and his Church, so let this Collect remind you in the Daily Office throughout this week to “mortify the works of the flesh”, to discern the disguised wolf from the true sheep, and endeavor to follow Christ as he leads, not as we would have him lead.

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1 & 2 Thessalonians

This morning in the Daily Office, our new lectionary starts our brief journey through 2 Thessalonians.  We just finished 1 Thessalonians.

There are a few New Testament books that have both the same author and same recipient: Luke & Acts, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and probably 1 & 2 Peter.  When this happens, it pays to look at what some of the primary concerns of each book is, and see why a sequel or follow-up was necessary.

In the case of the epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, one of the noteworthy themes is that of eschatology – the return of Christ at the end.  A handy oversimplification of these two could be:

1. Christ is coming soon!  2. But not that soon.

For in 1 Thessalonians there is that famous passage in chapters 4 & 5, “we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope“, and “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God“, and “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night“.  Popular evangelicalism has right and truly muddled up many believers’ understanding of these verses with erroneous teachings about a “rapture” and I encourage you who preach to make sure you help people rightly understand verses such as these.

But then in 2 Thessalonians St. Paul encourages them “not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come” and teaches them “if any one will not work, let him not eat.  For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.”  It was as if there was a group of people there so excited for the return of Christ that they gave up their earthly labors to focus entirely on spiritual exercise until the Day of the Lord.  Those who misunderstood his first letter to them needed the correction of a second letter to help them get balanced.

Perhaps this example will help you as you read through this epistle, reminding you to think back to what was read in the first one, and see how the situation, and St. Paul’s response, has developed over time.

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The Trinity Acclamation

For most of the rest of 2019, our Thursday posts will be walking through the Communion service of the 2019 Prayer Book.  Today we’re starting at the beginning, the Opening Acclamation.

We’ve looked at these once before during Advent, and have noted how the Opening Sentences of the Daily Office have taken on a similar role in modern liturgy.  So let’s look at the Acclamation that occupies the majority of the Church Calendar Year.

The people standing, the Celebrant says this or a seasonal greeting.
Celebrant Blessed be God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
People   And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Besides this, the Prayer Book has about eight other Acclamations to choose from, according to the season or occasion.  Most of them are quotes from or references to Scripture; a couple of them (like this one) are not.

Functionally, these are what one might entitle “The Call to Worship”, and is very similar to the beginning exhortation in the Office right before the Confession, or the Invitatory dialogue and psalm.  A traditionalist might look down his nose at these Acclamations, however, for they are not a part of Prayer Book tradition before 1979.  But there is more background to them than meets the eye.

In Western liturgical tradition, the introit is a “proper” – a text that is paired with the Collect and lessons of the Mass.  It’s usually a few verses from a psalm, though sometimes other Scriptures or texts comprise an introit.  It usually ends with a Gloria Patri (Glory be to the Father).  Each Sunday and holy day (and, I presume, minor saints day and votive mass) would have its own introit.  These Acclamations in modern tradition is actually a reduction and simplification – instead of having a particular introit for each mass of the year, there are just these nine or so Acclamations.  The Roman Catholic Church has done something similar with its liturgy; some of their Acclamations are very similar to ours.

An attentive reader or worshiper may notice that this Acclamation is different than it was in the 1979 Prayer Book.  That book rendered it:

Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We, meanwhile, have added “the” to each person of the Trinity.  Why?

It’s more explicit about trinitarian theology.  The previous format can leave one with the unconscious impression that God is a nebulous entity with three aspects, and fall into the heresies of sabellianism or modalism.  But stating, instead the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we subtly emphasize that these are three distinct persons, not just modes of being that God can switch between.  Yes it’s subtle, and yes it’s implicit, but that’s one of the important things about worship and common prayer: little things repeated enough times can have a huge impact.

Did this phrase along cause the catastrophic descent of the Episcopal Church into theological chaos in the latter quarter of the 20th century?  No, probably not.  More likely it was a symptom of pre-existent trends.  But it is a phrase that we found we could adopt and improve for a clearer proclamation of the identity of the God we are gathering to worship that day, and every day.

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Collect for Proper 7

After Monday’s brief interruption with the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Collect of the Day for the Daily Office this week has gone back to Sunday’s “Proper 7.”  Hmm, we should probably look at what “Proper #” means, one of these days.  But right now we’re looking at the Collect.  Here it is:

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

It is written in James’ epistle that “true religion” involves caring for those in need.  As the Collect suggests, that is what the original set of Scriptures, in the traditional one-year lectionary, dealt with.  This Collect was originally paired with Mark 8:1-10 (wherein Jesus feeds the 4,000) and Romans 6:1-23 which provides a more detailed explanation for this: we can either be “slaves” to sin or to God; slavery to one is freedom from the other.

A critical lesson of this traditional set of propers (collect & readings) is that being a truly religious slave of God is active, not passive.  This informs our reading of the Collect as a whole, too.  “Graft in our hearts the love of your name” is a prayer not just for an internal disposition, but for external transformation.  It leads to (or includes) an increase in “true religion”, a nourishment “in all goodness” (that is with God’s goodness or righteousness), and “the fruit of good works” brought forth in our lives.

If you look back at the Scripture lessons in our modern (2019) lectionary, you’ll find this Collect is a good answer for the Epistle lesson, Galatians 3:23-29, which spoke of faith that is free from the law.

As this week continues, perhaps this Collect will take you back to that lesson on Sunday.  Or perhaps it can lead you in new directions, deeper into what it means, tangibly, to love God, increase in true religion, be filled with his goodness, and bear the fruit of good works.  It is a prayer to aid us against sloth and lethargy – faith is to be active and productive; internal realities are to have external consequences.  Pray for your growth in Christ, this week!

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Happy Birthday, John the Baptist!

This is one of the big feast days of the year, in some country’s traditions the most-celebrated of all Saints’ Days (especially in Scandinavia for some reason).  Rather than give you a single write-up about this feast day in Prayer Book tradition, we’re offering you a variety of angles to explore at your leisure.

#1 – the Natural Connection

https://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2017/06/24/the-gospel-according-to-astronomy/

#2 – the Christmas Connection

nativity

#3 – the Calm Before the Storm

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Reading the book of Daniel

This evening the Daily Office Lectionary of the 2019 BCP starts us into the book of Daniel.

Daniel is an interesting book in modern Christian experience because the first half of it is so well known through its popular stories, and its second half is so… inaccessible.  It’s almost like two different books stuck together, linked only by the appearance of the main character in the first half as the one receiving the visions of the second half.  This, and other considerations, has led a number of scholars in the past two centuries to conclude that it is in fact two separate books: the first half collected from various “Daniel traditions” (stories about Daniel and his friends) and the second half written by an anonymous apocalypticist in the 150’s B.C. attributing Daniel’s name to it.  There’s a lot more to it than that, of course, and I have yet to dig through the evidence and arguments, myself, in any great detail, so I won’t bore you with further details on that here.

The book of Daniel is one where the Anglican lectionary tradition of reading one chapter at a time pays off exceedingly well: the first six chapters are six different stories about Daniel (and/or his friends) which span a very long period of time (perhaps one of the factors that lead some to question the strict historicity of this book).  Time after time, faithful believers are persecuted for their faith, and God rescues them in the midst of danger.  They are exciting stories of faith standing strong, heroic, even, and popular for children’s Sunday School curricula.

Starting in chapter 7, things take a turn for the weird.  There were hints of this new style in a couple of the visions that Daniel dealt with in the earlier stories, but now it’s full on: this is apocalyptic literature.  An apocalypse is a “revealing” or “unveiling” or a “revelation”, and is a highly stylized version or subset of prophetic writing.  Usually looking at the end of history, an apocalypse is typified by a black-and-white approach to judgment and mercy, a full disclosure of the divine will, and the utter destruction of all that is evil.  There is a lot of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writing from the few centuries immediately preceding and proceeding Christ, and very little of it ended up in the Bible.  For more on biblical apocalyptic writings, click here.

The apocalypse of Daniel, unfolding in chapters 7-12, gives us some of the Old Testament’s most vivid and explicit visions of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus, of world events leading up to his time period, of the resurrection of the dead, and of angelology.  It makes for exciting reading to a Christian, even though recent groups (especially the dispensationalists) have come up with some very contentious interpretations.  Curiously, Jewish thought did not seem to be quite as positively excited about this book; in the Hebrew Bible Daniel is not placed among the “prophets” but among the “writings”, their tertiary layer of biblical canon.  Granted, some of the key visions of Daniel did get revisited in the book 2 Esdras which is among our Ecclesiastical Books, but that’s only a fringe interest.  Perhaps this is another piece of evidence for a later date of origin or compilation for the book of Daniel.

Regardless of its literary history, the book of Daniel is simultaneously one of the most and least accessible books of Old Testament Prophets that we’ve got.  If you’re like most people, “come for the stories, stay for the apocalypse!”  But, in line with lectionary wisdom, if we keep returning to these visions year after year, along with the rest of the Bible read throughout the year, then one should be better-equipped to make sense of these writings each time.

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Two Historical Psalms

Depending upon your perspective and state of mind, this might be a difficult time of month: there is only Psalm appointed both for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, but it’s a long one.  Psalms 102 through 109 are among the longest in the psalter, and unless you’re using an easier (or “watered-down” as some would say) psalter, you have to plow through the whole thing in one go.

Today it’s Psalm 105 in the morning and 106 in the evening.  Something that makes the length of these two a bit easier to manage is the fact that they’re both historical, or story-telling, psalms.  And to some degree 106 is a continuation of 105.

Psalm 105’s first 11 verses set the tone: let us give thanks to God and rejoice for his promises to (and covenant with) Abraham.

Verses 12-23 summarizing some of the patriarchal history, wandering in Canaan, through to the arrival of Joseph in Egypt, and the movement of the Israelite clans there after him.

Verses 24-37 tell of the oppression in Egypt, the call of Moses, and the exodus.

Verses 38-44 conclude the Psalm with God’s subsequent provision and guidance in the wilderness.  The overall tone of Psalm 105 is positive: it celebrates what God had done for his people, and calls us to rejoice in this memory.

Psalm 106 takes a rather different mood.  Its introductory six verses, while beginning with a call to give thanks to God, highlights God’s mercy as the reason for our thankfulness, because “We have sinned like our Fathers, * we have done wrong and dealt wickedly.”

Verses 7-12 repeat the exodus story, noting the unfaithfulness of God’s people, and how they didn’t really trust him until the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea.

Verses 13-31 tell of a few episodes of further unfaithfulness, as they “forgot his works” and continually complained and rebelled against Moses and their God.  A couple instances of divine judgment are poured out, culminating with the plague which was stayed by the righteous action of Phineas (cf. Numbers 25).  It’s especially fascinating to note that the phrase “it was reckoned to him as righteousness” appears twice in the Old Testament: once here, and once for Abraham’s faith.

Verses 32-46 conclude with more instances of unfaithfulness and disobedience, but God “remembered his covenant and pitied them, according to the multitude of his mercies.”  We pray, in this Psalm, that God would likewise deliver us from all our troubles, and remind ourselves to praise him forever and ever.

A regular pray-er of the Psalms is therefore well-rehearsed in these Old Testament stories, and has a ready-made application for them: exhortations to repent, to trust, to follow God.  There are other history psalms besides these two, but these are the biggest, and occupy our attentions in the Daily Offices of the 20th day of the month.  Hopefully these reflections will help you push through them if you find their length daunting!

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What does the + mean?

You’re reading something churchy and all of a sudden there’s a plus sign on the page.  What does that mean?  Typically it’s one of three things.

#1 Make the sign of the cross on yourself.

In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and high-church Anglican tradition, making the sign of the cross is a common gesture in the course of prayer and worship.  Most often, one crosses oneself when the priest is pronouncing a blessing or absolution, or when the person praying says the triune name of God: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  The opening acclamation of the modern communion service is typically said with the sign of the cross, as is the beginning of the Gospel Canticles (the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc dimittis).  If you’re a regular worshiper in a high-church context, you may be able to identify more points in the liturgy where people do this.

In certain liturgical texts, though not any official Prayer Books, a plus sign or cross is placed alongside or amidst the words to indicate when the worshiper should cross him-or-herself.

#2 The celebrant makes the sign of the cross over something.

During the celebration of a sacrament or sacramental rite, it was traditional for the priest or bishop to make the sign of the cross over the object being blessed or consecrated.  We saw an example of this last week in the 1549 Prayer Book’s eucharistic canon.  When holy water or oils are being blessed, it is customary for the celebrant to make the sign of the cross over those elements also.

I’ve seen occasions wherein people cross themselves while the celebrant makes the sign of the cross over the object(s) being blessed, and it’s frankly a bit comical.  There the bishop is, consecrating oil to be used in the anointing of the sick and whatnot, and there’s half the congregation crossing themselves at the same time!  The reader has to be aware of whether the + is meant for the congregation or for just the celebrant.  Usually context is perfectly clear.  If nothing else, this is a reminder that one must always keep one’s brain engaged in the liturgy. “What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15).

#3 The priest or bishop is conveying a blessing in writing.

When writing a letter (or email, today) a priest or bishop may sign off with a blessing to his recipients by marking a + or † after his name if he’s a priest or before his name if he’s a bishop.  As deacons do not pronounce blessings, they do not sign their name in this manner.

This is by far the most misunderstood use of the sign today.  It’s frequently used as a name marker in internet communication:

Dear Fred+,

I was talking with +William and James\ about the conduct of a member of our vestry, and would like your input.

Thanks,
Lionel+

The only correct use of the sign is in the signature.  Father Fred and Bishop William should just be spelled out; the plus sign is not supposed to be a shorthand for ordination status.  Occasionally people have even used the \ to denote a Deacon, such as Deacon James in this fictitious example.  Yeah it’s kind of cute, imitating the slant of a deacon’s stole, but it’s also incorrect style.  The plus sign or cross with someone’s name in correspondence is meant to be a conferral or wish of blessing on the part of the bishop or priest writing the correspondence.  Hence, Father Lionel’s name is the only correct appearance of the + in the example above.