The Prayer Book Explained Part 20

Three celebrated Sacramentaries.

Three of the Sacramentaries deserve here special mention.

I. Gregory the Great, who was Pope of Rome from 590 to 604, was the author of one of them. The English Church owes him grat.i.tude for sending missionaries to this country at a time when the older British Church was deficient in missionary zeal: and we must here notice our debt to him for a number of our best-known collects, as well as other improvements in the Services. Canon Bright gives a list of 32 or 33 taken from Gregory's Book. Some of them may perhaps have been added after Gregory's time; for it is often difficult to distinguish between the original pa.s.sages of an ancient Service-book and the additions which were quickly made to it.

Twenty-eight Collects in that list are in our book amongst the Epistles and Gospels. Besides these there are: one in the Baptism Service--_Almighty and {136} immortal G.o.d_: the first part of _We humbly beseech thee_ in the Litany: _O G.o.d, whose nature and property_ in the Occasional Prayers: _Prevent us, O Lord_ at the end of the Communion Service.

II. The Sacramentary of Gelasius (who was Pope of Rome 492 to 496) had provided much material which Gregory adopted. From this ancient source we have our _Second Collect, for Peace_ in the Morning Service; and the _Third Collect, for Grace_: the _Second Collect, for Peace_ in the Evening Service: the _Third Collect, for Aid_: the Collect _for the Clergy and People: a.s.sist us mercifully_, at the end of the Communion Service: the Confirmation Collect, _Almighty and everlasting G.o.d_: a Collect in the Visitation Service: _O Lord we beseech thee_, in the Commination: and 21 of those which are placed with the Epistles and Gospels.

III. We go back still further for seven of the Sunday Collects, which are taken from the Sacramentary of Leo the Great (Pope of Rome, 440 to 461).

Thus, five-sixths of our Sunday Collects are from these three Service-books: although we do not purpose here to say much of the Collects used in the Communion Service, and ranking as the "First Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer, we think it useful to note their derivation from the 5th and 6th centuries. Even those which are not so derived owe their form and manner to the same models.

This last remark applies to all the prayers which have the Collect form. We may suppose that, in the years which preceded Leo the Great, the Collects were being made. Perhaps the dignity of their {137} diction grew by the survival of the simplest and best; by the falling away of superfluous words; and of words of effort: in any case the absence of small auxiliary words, in Latin sentences, contributed much to their tone of modest dependence on G.o.d, as well as to their poetic force.

To take an ill.u.s.tration, our Second Collect at Mattins is translated from the following Gelasian Collect: _Deus auctor pacis et amator, Quem nosse vivere, Cui servire regnare est, protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos; ut qui defensione tua fidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus: Per &c_.

These 27 Latin words are equivalent to the 51 English words which we use. We do not, however, suggest that the tone has been altered in the translation. On the contrary, our Translators had so learnt the right tone of the old prayers, that they not only translated them and the tone, into a language of a very different sort; they also composed new prayers, in English, which rank with the old ones, and have the same great excellences. The Collects for Easter Eve, and Christmas Day, may be taken as good examples of this.

What then are the characteristics which we must expect in a Collect?

1. It has three simple parts: (_a_) the Name of G.o.d; (_b_) what we ask; (_c_) our appeal to Christ's advocacy.

2. It makes no effort to instruct the congregation, but speaks with simplicity and directness, to Him who knows all things.

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3. It asks for grace and help for our souls, whereby we may do what is right.

Other prayers imitate Collects in one or more of these respects; and may be called Collects, though not satisfying all the conditions.

The Three parts of a Collect.

Our Lord taught us (St John xiv. 13, 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23-26) to ask G.o.d in His name. A Collect is a prayer made on that model. It has three parts:

(_a_) G.o.d is addressed; and (_b_) pet.i.tion made, (_c_) in the Name of Jesus.

(_a_) G.o.d is addressed. This may be expressed in one word, or expanded into a sentence. It is always the reason for our prayer, that G.o.d is able and willing to hear us: every name of G.o.d when named by His children is an appeal to Him.

When we expand the address, we do so in order to include a claim, to be heard because some quality in G.o.d has a special relation to that which we are about to ask. Because G.o.d loves peace, we can ask Him for Peace: because He is merciful, we can ask Him for forgiveness: because He gave at Pentecost, we can ask Him for the same gift on Whitsun Day.

Thus the name of G.o.d at the beginning of a Collect often includes some t.i.tle upon which we build our hope.

(_b_) What we ask. This may be simple, or complex: it is Simple when we ask for something without saying anything of the means, or the results, {139} of our obtaining it: Complex, when we ask for some thing in order that we may also have something else.

(_c_) Appeal to Christ's Advocacy. Our claim upon G.o.d is "in the name"

of Jesus Christ. Here again we vary the thought in agreement with the pet.i.tion: sometimes it is His mediation, sometimes His might, or His love, which we mention: but not haphazard--the words are chosen to suit what has been asked for.

One variety of this part deserves special mention--when we claim the Saviour's advocacy, by words which recognise Him as One of the Blessed Trinity. When His G.o.dhead is thus mentioned, an ascription of praise is often added.

Origin of the word 'Collect.'

It is impossible to speak with confidence about the origin of the word Collect. We find in old Services both Collecta and Collectio. It might be conjectured that these were references to Books of Collects bearing those names as their t.i.tles. But the explanations which have been offered for a thousand years, though very various, do not include that as a possibility. Some derive it from people,

(1) collected for wors.h.i.+p: (2) collected in the unity of the Church: (3) having collectedness of mind.

Others from:

(4) the sense collected from Scripture: (5) the desires collected from the congregation.

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Canon Bright[1] decides in favour of (1) as the explanation of _Collecta_, and (5) as that of _Collectio_, preferring the former as the source of our English word _Collect_.

Canon Bright quotes Alcuin the Northumbrian boy, the York Scholar (735-804), who became the most learned man in Europe, and the friend, adviser, and teacher, of the great Emperor Charlemagne. Alcuin derived the word from _Collecta_, an a.s.sembly for wors.h.i.+p.

The Morning and Evening Collects.

The First Collect is the Collect of the Day. The Preface (last rubric before the Table of Lessons) orders that the Collect "appointed for the Sunday shall serve all the week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered." The Book 'orders otherwise' for Saints' Days, and at such special times as Christmas, Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Even, but has omitted, by some accident, to provide for the two days after Ascension Day, for the week days between The Epiphany and the First Sunday after, and for the three days after Ash-Wednesday.

A rubric at the beginning of the _Collects, Epistles, and Gospels_ provides that the Collect for a Sunday, or for a Holy Day having a Vigil or Eve, shall be said at the Evening Service next before.

We have said something of the source of these Collects: their detailed consideration belongs to a {141} book on the Communion Service, or on the Epistles and Gospels.

The Second Collect, both at Mattins and Evensong, is a Collect for Peace. Both are taken from the same chapter of Prayers for Peace in the Gelasian Sacramentary.

The Morning Collect, desiring that our trust in G.o.d, and our fearlessness, may be strengthened by continual knowledge of G.o.d's protection, addresses Him as the author and lover of peace, and also as the One whom we know and serve, and thereby have life and freedom.

_Standeth our eternal life_. Notice the phrase standeth in as a subst.i.tute for is. We could not have said _whose knowledge is eternal life_, because of the momentary doubt whether it referred to the knowledge which G.o.d has, or to the knowledge which we have of Him. By the use of an idiom not now in common use, we express the belief taught by the Saviour's words S. John xvii. 3.

Notice also the phrase _whose service is perfect freedom_: here the Latin original has _whom to serve is to reign_. Our eagerness to do G.o.d's Will is, on the one hand, a service or bondage to Him; but, on the other hand, it is what makes us masters of ourselves, and, in the spiritual sense, kings (1 Cor. iv. 8; Rev. i. 6).

The prayer for defence from external a.s.sault has for its real motive the attainment of trust and fearlessness.

The Evening Collect for Peace asks more plainly for spiritual peace; in relation to (1) the tumults {142} occasioned in our consciences by disobedience to G.o.d's commands, (2) the tumults occasioned in our lives by outward interference. For (1), we appeal to G.o.d as the author of good and holy desires within us: for (2), we appeal to Him as the counsellor who helps us against our enemies. For both, we appeal to Him who enables us, and others, to do what is just.

The Third Collect in the Morning is styled a Collect _for Grace_.

Because He is Almighty and Everlasting; because He is our Father and our G.o.d and Lord; and, in particular, because He has brought us to the beginning of the day; we ask Him to keep us from harm, and sin, and danger, as the day goes on.

The corresponding Evening Collect is styled a Collect _for Aid against all Perils_. Accepting the figure suggested by the close of the day, we ask G.o.d to defend us from the perils and dangers of darkness. The light which we seek is evidently inward and spiritual light; the defence, in like manner, a defence from spiritual perils, though not excluding the others: cf. Psalm xviii. 28: xxvii. i.

C. The other Prayers.

The change from the Three Collects to the Three Prayers which follow may be softened by the Anthem, (or Hymn), which comes between. The spiritual gifts, desired in the Collects, are the qualities which guide the lives of men. When we pray that we may have a good King, or a good Bishop, or a good People, we have evidently pa.s.sed from the general to the particular; from that which is within us to that which is external.