TIP OF THE DAY 84: Bible study from Collect

MJ. Smith

I am adding these posts to the previous tip list L/V 10 Tip of the Day ;

QUESTION: How does prayer, specifically collects, relate to attributes of God?

ANSWER: from Perplexity:

Prayer, particularly in the form of collects, has a profound relationship with the attributes of God. This connection is evident in several key aspects:

Addressing God's Nature

Collects typically begin by addressing God and highlighting one of His attributes or actions. This practice serves multiple purposes:

1. It focuses our attention on who God is, reminding us of His character and nature.

2. It sets the tone for the prayer, often relating the chosen attribute to the petition that follows.

For example, a collect might begin with "Almighty and everlasting God," emphasizing God's power and eternal nature before making a request that relies on these attributes.

Theological Richness

Collects are theologically rich, concentrating on the many glorious attributes of the Triune God[1]. They often incorporate:

References to God's actions in history

Descriptions of His character

Acknowledgments of His role in creation and redemption

This theological depth helps to reinforce our understanding of God's nature and works.

Trinitarian Focus

Many collects reflect a Trinitarian understanding of God, addressing the distinct persons of the Trinity while maintaining their unity. This practice:

Reinforces the doctrine of the Trinity

Highlights the unique roles of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our salvation

Demonstrates how prayer itself is a Trinitarian activity (praying to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit)

Shaping Our Understanding

By consistently using collects that emphasize various attributes of God, we shape our own understanding and perception of who God is. This practice:

Helps us develop a more comprehensive view of God's character

Encourages us to approach God based on His revealed nature

Deepens our faith and trust in God's abilities and intentions

Guiding Our Petitions

The attributes of God mentioned in collects often inform and guide the petitions that follow. For instance:

Addressing God as merciful might precede a request for forgiveness

Acknowledging God's sovereignty could lead to a prayer for guidance or submission to His will

This structure helps us align our requests with God's character and purposes.

In conclusion, collects serve as a powerful tool for connecting our prayers to the attributes of God. They remind us of who God is, shape our theology, guide our petitions, and ultimately deepen our relationship with the Triune God.1

Logos/Verbum search: from Reid, Daniel G., Robert Dean Linder, Bruce L. Shelley, and Harry S. Stout. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.

Collect. A short, structured public prayer which follows a distinctively formalized pattern. The collect form consists of: (1) an address to God; (2) a clause appealing to an attribute or saving act of God; (3) the petition; (4) a statement of the divine purpose for which the prayer is intended; and (5) a conclusion with a doxological, Christological or Trinitarian orientation.

Originally, as a Western Catholic phenomenon, collects concluded a unit of worship. They have been widely adapted for weekly use in various American Protestant churches which often prescribe one for each worship service of the church year. In Protestant use, a collect may open worship, precede the reading of the Word or conclude either the processional, the sharing of greetings, an improvised general prayer or the service of Communion.

Bibliography. P. Cobb, “The Liturgy of the Word in the Early Church,” in The Study of Liturgy, ed. C. Jones et al. (1978).[2]

From Hastings, James, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray, eds. Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908–1926.

4. How addressed.—The Roman collects are, with very few exceptions, addressed to the First Person of the Blessed Trinity. This was the most ancient usage of the Church, based upon the belief that the Eucharist was a representation of the sacrifice of Himself offered by the Son to the Father (Bona, II. v. 5). The 3rd Council of Carthage (397) made this custom a binding law by enacting (canon 24) that ‘at the altar prayer shall always be directed to the Father’ (‘Quum altari adsistitur, semper ad Patrem dirigatur oratio’). It is remarkable that, notwithstanding this usage and law, the majority of the ‘Collectiones’ in the Western non-Roman liturgies are addressed to the Son. We may attribute this to the exigency of the position of the Hispano-Gallican Church, confronted as it was with the Arianism of the Northern invaders, who alleged the exclusive address of liturgical prayers to the Father as implying an inequality in the Trinity (Warren, Bangor Ant. vol. ii. p. xxvii; Cabrol, DACL, col. 655; Liddon, The Divinity of Our Lord4 [Bampton Lectures], p. 389).

5. Structure of collect.—The collect follows a clearly marked plan of construction. It consists of one short sentence containing a single petition, and in its complete form—for some collects lack one or more members—may be analyzed into five parts: (1) the invocation; (2) the reason upon which the petition is based; (3) the petition itself; (4) the benefit which the granting of the petition will confer; (5) the termination, which varies according to fixed rules (see below). Take for an illustration the Pr. Bk. collect for the 2nd Sunday in Lent, which comes from the Gregorian Sacramentary: (1) ‘Almighty God, (2) who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; (3) keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; (4) that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; (5) through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

The termination was from early times made to harmonize with the phrasing of the preceding words. We find this feature already in the Gregorian Sacramentary, and even suggestions of it in the Gallican liturgies. In the later Service Books, careful rules, often expressed in hexameter verse, are laid down to meet every possible variety of phrasing, although the collects themselves generally conclude simply with ‘Per’ or ‘Per Dominum,’ or occasionally with a cue such as ‘qui vivis,’ ‘per eundem,’ to assist the memory of the priest. When several collects are recited together, the termination is appointed to be said only after the first and last.

The rules appear with great fullness in the York Missal, and may be thus summarized: (1) If the collect be addressed to the Father, it should end: ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son [or, if our Lord has been previously mentioned, ‘through the same Jesus Christ our Lord’], who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the [‘same,’ if the Holy Ghost has been previously mentioned] Holy Ghost, God, world without end.’ If there be mention of the Trinity, the collect should end: ‘In which [i.e. Trinity] thou livest and reignest, God,’ etc. (2) A collect addressed to the Son should end: ‘who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the [‘same’] Holy Ghost, God,’ etc. (3) A collect addressed to the Trinity should end: ‘who livest and reignest, God,’ etc.

As a specimen of the memorial verses we add these, which occur in the Sarum Breviary:

‘ “Per Dominum,” dicas, si Patrem, presbyter, oras.

Si Christum memores, “per eundem,” dicere debes.

Si loqueris Christo, “qui vivis,” scire memento.

“Qui tecum,” si sit collectae finis in ipso.’

6. Book of Common Prayer.—The way the collects have been dealt with in the Pr. Bk. is of special interest for English-speaking people. In the re-construction of the public Services in the 16th cent. the ‘Secreta’ and ‘Postcommunio’ disappeared as features of the Communion Office, but the Collect proper was retained, for the most part in versions, more or less literal, of the Latin forms. Thus the collects of the Pr. Bk. are mainly survivals, in living and familiar use, of the collects of the Sacramentaries, though only of a few out of many; for the simplification and retrenchment of the Services at the Reformation involved, here as elsewhere, the sacrifice of much liturgical wealth.[3]

1 and and and http://orderofcenturions.org/collect-form.html and and and

[2] Daniel G. Reid, Robert Dean Linder, et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990).

DACL Diet. d’Archéologie Chrétienne et de Litirige (Cabrol).

Pr. Bk. Prayer Book.

Pr. Bk. Prayer Book.

Pr. Bk. Prayer Book.

[3] J. G. Carleton, “Collect,” in Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray (Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908–1926), 715. https://anglicancompass.com/announcing-collect-reflections/ https://voice.dts.edu/article/three-ways-the-content-of-our-prayer-exposes-our-theology/ https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/god-centered-prayer http://www.liturgies.net/Prayers/Collects.htm http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Anglican_Service_Book/collects.html https://jeremyoddy.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/220/

MJ. Smith

From Cranmer, Thomas. God Truly Worshipped: Thomas Cranmer and His Writings. Edited by Jonathan Dean. Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2012.

The Collects

These short, communal prayers with ancient roots perhaps constitute Anglicanism’s greatest gift to Protestant liturgy. Cranmer, as we have seen, drew on a wide range of sources in compiling his prayers, including the Sacramentaries of the fourth-century popes Leo I and Gelasius, and their seventh-century successor, Gregory the Great. Twenty-four of them, reproduced below, are his own original composition. Of particular note are those for the saints, now including only biblical figures and drastically pared down in number and content from those with which medieval Catholics would have been familiar. As is seen in this collection, for instance, in the prayer for the feast of the Annunciation, Cranmer ensured that the focus of the petition was on the life of the believer and their relationship with the divine, almost even at the expense of the saint themselves, whose own achievements faded into the background except as illustrative virtues to which the contemporary Christian might aspire. Cranmer carefully draws scriptural lessons for the congregation from these heroes of faith, turning the force of the prayer away from the saint and towards the life of the worshipper; he strips them of any ‘superstitious’ elements, and very deliberately widens that for St Peter’s Day to include ‘all bishops and pastors’, thus steering the congregation away from any past connection between Peter and the See of Rome. The remainder of these collects have been described as ‘close translations of the terse Latin originals’7 and are almost always richer in translation than they had been in the original. A selection of those appears here too, surely some of the most perfectly crafted prayers for public worship ever composed and a striking example of the translator’s art exceeding that of the first writers.

Original Compositions

The First Sunday in Advent

Almighty God, give us grace, that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life (in which thy son Jesus Christ came to us with great humility) that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead: we may rise to the life immortal, through him, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy ghost, now and ever.

The Second Sunday in Advent

Blessed Lord, which hath caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them: that by patience and comfort of thy holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our saviour Jesus Christ.

Christmas Day

Almighty God, which hast given us thy only begotten son to take our nature upon him, and this day to be born of a pure virgin: Grant that we being regenerate and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy holy spirit, through the same our lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy ghost, now and ever.

The Circumcision of Christ

Almighty God, which madest thy blessed son to be circumcised and obedient to the law for man: grant us the true circumcision of the spirit, that our hearts and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, may in all things obey thy blessed will: through the same thy son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Sunday called Quinquagesima8

O Lord which dost teach us, that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: send thy holy ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and all virtues, without the which, whosoever liveth, is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thy only son Jesus Christ’s sake.

The First Day of Lent

Almighty and everlasting God, which hatest nothing which thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that be penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and knowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus Christ.

The First Sunday in Lent

O Lord, which for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights: Give us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey thy godly monitions, in righteousness and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, which livest and reignest, etc.

Good Friday (second collect at Communion)9

Merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels and heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth, etc.

Easter Sunday

Almighty God, which through thy only begotten son Jesus Christ, hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: we humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace, preventing us, thou dost put in our minds good desires: so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect, through Jesus Christ our Lord: who liveth and reigneth, etc.[1]

QUESTION: What are some Logos/Verbum books other than Roman Missals and Bool of Common Prayer that contain collects?

ANSWER: from my library:

Barbee, C. Frederick, and Paul F. M. Zahl. The Collects of Thomas Cranmer. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006.

Bush, Joseph. The Canticles of the Song of Solomon: A Metrical Paraphrase with Explanatory Notes and Practical Comments. London: Hatchard & Co., 1867.

Neale, J. M., and R. F. Littledale. A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediæval Writers: Psalm 119 to Psalm 150. Vol. 4. London: Joseph Masters, 1874.

Nichols, Bridget, ed. The Collect in the Churches of the Reformation. SCM Studies in Worship and Liturgy. London: SCM Press, 2010.

Taylor, W. David O., and Phaedra Taylor. Prayers for the Pilgrimage: A Book of Collects for All of Life. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Formatio, 2024.

Vaughan, Robert. The Psalter of David with Titles and Collects according to the Matter of Each Psalm. Early English Books Online. Oxford: Leonard Lichfield .., 1644.

7 M. R. Dudley, The Collect in Anglican Liturgy (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1994), pp. 6–7.

8 The Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

9 This collect is included for completeness, reflecting a Cranmerian mixture of traditional Holy Week intercessions and new language for them. In its prayers for the conversion of Jews, Muslims and ‘heretics’, it reflects its setting, and so causes some pain to the modern reader. It may be noted that the traditional Roman Catholic version of this prayer included the adjective ‘faithless’ of the Jews, which Cranmer omits, preferring to stress God’s universal love for all. These prayers for the conversion of the Jewish people were omitted from the Roman Catholic liturgy only after Pope John XXIII interrupted a Good Friday liturgy to order the priest to remove the word ‘faithless’; subsequently, his Second Vatican Council of the 1960s permanently deleted the phrase from the service. The Church today must still wrestle, both with its history of anti-Jewishness and with formulating a more inclusive theology for relating to those of other faiths in a globalized world.

[1] Thomas Cranmer, God Truly Worshipped: Thomas Cranmer and His Writings, ed. Jonathan Dean, Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2012), 109–112.