Collects for Holy Innocents (Dec 28)

From the BCP

O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings hast ordained
strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by
their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us,
and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the
innocency of our lives, and constancy of our
faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
whose children suffered at the hands of Herod,
receive, we pray, all innocent victims
into the arms of your mercy.
By your great might frustrate all evil designs
and establish your reign of justice, love, and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collects for St. John the Evangelist

From the BCP

MERCIFUL Lord, we beseech thee to cast
thy bright beams of light upon thy Church,
that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy
blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may
so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may
at length attain to the light of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS

Shed upon your Church, O Lord,
the brightness of your light,
that we being illumined by the teaching
of your apostle and evangelist John,
may walk in the light of your truth,
and come at last to the fullness of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Christmas, St. Stephen's Day, and Holy Innocents

Hot on the heels of Christmas are the Holy days of St. Stephen (December 26) and Holy Innocents (December 28). It seems most peculiar that the Church (Roman, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican) would have such ‘downer’ days after the great feast of the Nativity. As Anglicans we need to look at the Collects of the Church for all three of these special days if we are to understand why they follow the joyous ‘high of Christmas.’ Further to this, the placement of St. Stephen’s and Holy Innocents reveals a clear understanding of Anglican spirituality that calls us to deeper communion with the LORD through worship and personal transformation.
St. Stephen was a young man called into the diaconate of the Church to help solve some apparent injustices in the support being offered to the widows of the Church. He was bold of speech among the people of Jerusalem and this caused a riot leading to his being stoned to death. During his last few breaths he asked the LORD to forgive his enemies. Herein lies the intent of the Collect of St. Stephen’s Day

GRANT, O Lord, that in all our sufferings
here upon earth, for the testimony of thy
truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and
by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed;
and, being filled with the Holy Spirit, may learn
to love and bless our persecutors, by the example
of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed
for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who
standest at the right hand of God to succour all
those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and
Advocate. Amen.

In today’s culture we have romanticized the Christmas Story, even relegated it to a myth status, that has reduced the Incarnation to a warm fuzzy story meant to invoke pleasant happy, feelings. This is hardly the sentiment revealed in the Scriptures, nor should it ever become the sentiment of our Christian witness, personally, and corporately in the liturgy of our worship. The Nativity is not just about the Second person of the Trinity taking on human flesh in order to die on the Cross for our sins. It also is the LORD’s example to us, so that we might take up God’s Spirit to die to the sinful desires in ourselves. Let us not belittle the courageous humility of Christ needed to take on human flesh. Nor should we belittle the courageous humility we will need to take on the fullness of the Holy Spirit to live like Christ. As HE is the LIGHT of the World, we are called to be lights in the world.
This is found in the important words of the Collect of St. Stephen’s Day. It is about example and humility. Stephen looked up to heaven as we too should. Stephen loved his persecutors by praying for them and forgiving them, as we too should. And finally to look to Christ to provide holy comfort (succour) to those, and we, who will suffer to live the example of Christ, as Stephen did.
Again the tragic story of the death of the Holy Innocents slaughtered by Herod’s henchmen is there to remind us of the reality of the evil in the world and how we are to respond to it. The collect says

O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings hast ordained
strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by
their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us,
and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the
innocency of our lives, and constancy of our
faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here we affirm nobody is lost in God’s purpose to be glorified in and through us: from innocent babies to the poorest of the poor, to kings and rulers. As Christ glorified the Father in the humility of His death so too did the Innocents in their tragic deaths. Again the example is there to draw us to a deeper walk of faith. Herod’s evilness calls us to beware of ‘all vices in us,’ for only by grace and mercy do we walk in holiness and righteousness. Evil is never far from the human heart, even our own hearts. Finally as Christ calls us to be little children in order to enter the Kingdom of God, so to we look to live in innocency of life (holiness), and to be consistently faithful unto death.
Now we see the connect to the Christmas Collect,

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only
Begotten Son to take our nature upon him,
and as at this time 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 same Spirit, ever one God,
world without end. Amen.

In order to live regenerate transformed lives, lives that reflect the life of Christ, we’ll need daily renewal in the Holy Spirit, and the witness of Scripture as evidenced in the life of Stephen, and the Innocents, and predominantly the witness of the humility of Christ helps us in this change.
There is nothing light and trite about the spirituality of this Scriptural and Anglican approach. It is challenging, even daunting, to surrender to the ways of Christ. It is counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. But it is glory and honour and Life, for it is God’s holy will for us all. There is a desire in all of us to want worship that makes God interesting to us, but in worship we are called to make ourselves interesting to God. This is the focus of classical Anglican spirituality, a spirituality that we must never lose for it is of God, and it is Scriptural. It is a spiritual approach bent on our regeneration and transformation so that we might glorify God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Brian+

Collects for Christmas Day

From the BCP

O GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly
remembrance of the birth of thy only Son
Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive
him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence
behold him when he shall come again to
be our Judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God,
you wonderfully created
and yet more wonderfully restored our human nature.
May we share the divine life of your Son Jesus Christ,
who humbled himself to share our humanity,
and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collect for the Feast Day of St. Thomas

From the BCP

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who for the
more confirmation of the faith didst suffer
thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy
Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly, and
without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus
Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be
reproved. Hear us, 0 Lord, through the same
Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy
Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for
evermore. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty and everliving God,
who strengthened your apostle Thomas
with faith in the resurrection of your Son.
Strengthen us when we doubt,
and make us faithful disciples
of Jesus Christ our risen Lord;
who with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns eternally. Amen

I find it interesting that the BCP places the Feast of St. Thomas just before the Birth of Jesus. It is as if we are to confront our doubt at the very beginning of the Church Year, within the Season of Advent: as if, to doubt the Incarnation, is to doubt the Resurrection. May our celebration of the Birth of Christ be filled with the true joy, hope, and love that is born out of belief in the actual, factual event of the Holy Nativity, and lived in vibrant faith.
Brian+

Collects for Advent 4

From the BCP

RAISE up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy
power, and come among us, and with great
might succour us; that whereas, through our sins
and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in
running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful
grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver
us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
livest and reignest, one God, world without end.
Amen.

From the BAS

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Virgin Mary, full of grace,
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour,
now fill us with your grace,
that we in all things may embrace your will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Good and Evil

I think evil is always small, and that good is infinite. Evil closes itself to God and thus becomes even smaller; Good opens itself to God and thus becomes infinite. Evil cannot become so large as to fill even the universe. God became so small that He could fill Hell and then burst it asunder because it could not contain Him. Every good deed will have eternal remembrance, but even the largest deeds of the evil will be forgotten.
Fr. Stephen Freeman

Collects for Advent 3

From the BCP

O'LORD Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming
didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way
before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards
of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and
make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the
disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy
second coming to judge the world we may be
found an acceptable people in thy sight; who
livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

From the BAS

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

O Christmas Tree

“I suspect that the custom of decorating a tree at Christmas time is not simply a custom which came to us from the West and which we should replace with other more Orthodox customs. To be sure, I have not gone into the history of the Christmas tree and where it originated, but I think that it is connected with the Christmas feast and its true meaning.

First, it is not unrelated to the prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah:
 ‘There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots’ (Is. 11:1). St. Cosmas the poet had this prophecy in mind when he wrote of Christ as the blossom which rose up out of the Virgin stem from the stump of Jesse. The root is Jesse, David’s father, the rod is King David, the flower which came from the root and the rod is Theotokos. And the fruit which came forth from the flower of the Panagia is Christ. Holy Scripture presents this wonderfully. Thus the Christmas tree can remind us of the genealogical tree of Christ as Man, the love of God, but also the successive purifications of the Forefathers of Christ. At the top is the star which is the God-Man (Theanthropos) Christ.

Then, the Christmas tree reminds us of the tree of knowledge as well as the tree of life, but especially the latter. It underlines clearly the truth that Christ is the tree of life and that we cannot live or fulfill the purpose of our existence unless we taste of this tree, ‘the producer of life’. Christmas cannot be conceived without Holy Communion. And of course as for Holy Communion it is not possible to partake of deification in Christ without having conquered the devil when we found ourselves faced with temptation relative to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where our freedom is tried. 

We rejoice and celebrate, because ‘the tree of life blossomed from the Virgin in the cave’.

”

Excerpt from: “The Feasts of the Lord: An Introduction to the 12 Feasts and Orthodox Christology” by Metropolitan of Nafpatkos Hierotheos Vlachos – November 1993
.

Collects for Advent 2

From the BCP

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy
Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant 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. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God,
who sent your servant John the Baptist
to prepare your people to welcome the Messiah,
inspire us, the ministers and stewards of your truth,
to turn our disobedient hearts to you,
that when the Christ shall come again to be our judge,
we may stand with confidence before his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Feast Day of St. Andrew (November 30)

Collect from the BCP

ALMIGHTY God, who didst give such grace
unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that
he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus
Christ, and followed him without delay: Grant
unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy
word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently
to fulfill thy holy commandments; through the
same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect from the BAS

Almighty God,
who gave your apostle Andrew
grace to believe in his heart
and to confess with his lips that Jesus is Lord,
touch our lips and our hearts
that faith may burn within us,
and we may share in the witness of your Church
to the whole human family;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen