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

Advent's offertory Sentence

I couldn't help but to connect these two together when I heard the offertory sentence from the BCP at this morning's Eucharist.

Advent. As we have opportunity, let us do
good unto all men; and especially unto them that
are of the household of faith. Galatians 6. 10

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

~ Mother Teresa

Collect for First Sunday of 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 visit us in 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
Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

Christ the king

"For God indeed is said to rule as King when nothing worldly meddles in the governing of our souls and when in every respect we live not of this world."
Blessed Theophylact

Collects for Sunday November 21

From the BCP - The Sunday next before Advent

STIR Up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills
of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously
bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of
thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS - The Reign of Christ

Almighty and everlasting God,
whose will it is to restore all things
in your well-beloved Son, our Lord and King,
grant that the peoples of the earth,
now divided and enslaved by sin,
may be freed and brought together
under his gentle and loving rule;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Draw Close to God

Sin is always a crime against the Father’s love. Sin occurs when we distance ourselves from God and incline towards the passions. Repentance is always bound up with abstinence from sinful leanings. Humanism, too, involves overcoming various vices. But in so far as ignorance of the deep-rooted essence of sin -pride – persists, this evil source remains entrenched and the tragical-ness of history continues to increase. The holy Fathers tell us that humility alone can save mankind, and pride alone is enough to bring us to the darkness of hell…. A great many of us frequent churches erected by man but relatively few find the “narrow way” which leads to the heavenly tabernacle not made by hands (c.f. Matt 7:14).

The struggle to “cast off the works of darkness, and… put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12) is a painful one. The age-old experience of holy ascetics demonstrates irrefutably that pride is the principle obstacle to enlightenment by the Holy Spirit…. God is Light, God is Truth, Love, Mercy, and much else. I would make bold to add: God is Humility. Nothing that is unclean – which means proud – can draw near Him. Pride is abomination, the opposite of Divine goodness. Pride is the principle of evil, the root of all tragedy, the sower of enmity, the destroyer of peace, the adversary of divinely-established order. In pride lies the essence of hell. Pride is the “outer darkness” where man loses contact with the God of love. “Men loved darkness” (Jn. 3:19). Repentance alone can deliver us from this hell.

People make their own hell for themselves. Better to be killed than kill is the attitude of the humble man of love.

~Archimandrite Sophrony

Peace Within

According to Abba Isaac, we are to be a friend as were as a stranger to everyone. Express your opinion without imposing it. Listen to the others even when they sound boring or foolish. They, too, have their pain, their story to tell, and Christ has shed His Precious Blood for them as well. Abba Isaiah warns us not to compare ourselves with others; it is a dangerous game if you say you are better than another, you fall into pride. If you say you are worse, you fall into fatalism, inferiority, despair. Be vitally concerned with progress in your studies and your work, but also be aware that everyone -cobbler, a street cleaner – can be a hero and a saint. See to it that you are who you actually are, do not pretend to be good for it is a burdensome illness that leads to death. At the same time do not fall into cynicism where love is concerned. Do not hurry and do not delay. Be as gentle and polite with yourself as you are austere and demanding. Do not idle away your time and do not tire yourself with programmatic endeavors that cannot be sustained.
Weariness and loneliness can quickly destroy health. Be reconciled with God. Be reconciled with yourself. Be reconciled with others in your life, and no one will ever be able to take away the peace from your heart.

~Monk Moses of Athos

All Soul's Day

From the BCP

MOST merciful Father, who hast been pleased
to take unto thyself our brethren departed:
Grant to us who are still in our pilgrimage, and
who walk as yet by faith, that having served thee
faithfully in this world, we may, with all faithful
Christian souls, be joined hereafter to the company
of thy blessed Saints in glory; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy
Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without
end. Amen.

From the BAS

Father of all,
we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer.
Grant them your peace,
let light perpetual shine upon them,
and in your loving wisdom and almighty power,
work in them the good purpose of your perfect will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collect for All Saint's Day

From the BCP

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together
thine elect in one communion and fellowship,
in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our
Lord: Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed
Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we
may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou
hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God,
whose people are knit together in one holy Church,
the mystical Body of your Son,
grant us grace to follow your blessed saints
in lives of faith and commitment,
and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared
for those who love you;
through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collects for Sunday, October 31

22nd after Trinity

LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy household
the Church in continual godliness; that
through thy protection it may be free from all
adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in
good works, to the glory of thy Name; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


23rd after Pentecost

Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen