DAILY PRAYERS/COLLECTS are STILL RELEVANT

THE traditional Collect for this week (Trinity XVIII) together with the set Collects for Morning Prayer are as relevant now as they were when first written (in Latin) and when they were first rendered into English. (If you have a problem with older standard English, they can easily be rendered into modern standard English!) They can be prayed profitably by Christians in Afghanistan as well as in the USA.

Consider first the two Collects to be used on every day of the year – 365 times.

The first one fits the industrialized and technological age as much as it fitted the pre-industrial world.

“O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We address GOD THE FATHER from whom alone true peace and concord come. We acknowledge that to know him (through His Incarnate Son) is eternal life and to serve him is genuine freedom (in comparison with which the great political and civil liberties of the USA are but dung). This freedom in the Spirit is the spiritual and moral sphere in which the fruit of the Spirit can grow in the soul and be seen.

The enemies who attack those who love God begin with Satan and his hosts and then include all those human beings who do the will of the Devil – many of whom may appear as angels of light! Against these adversaries, Christian believers trust in the Lord Jesus who is mighty, put on the armour that He supplies and know that they are perfectly well defended (as spiritual and moral beings). So at home, at work, in a car, a bus, a train, an aircraft or whatever, believers “surely trust in thy defence.”

The second set prayer likewise envisages a world of sin wherein there is spiritual, moral and perhaps physical danger at every turn:

“O LORD our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who has safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight: through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We acknowledge that God our Father is by His providence in control of everything and everyone (even though we have free will!) and therefore we look to him to guide us safely through the day ahead. We do not want to sin against him or be in danger but to do what he has commanded and what is pleasing to him. We are protected and guided by God to do what is RIGHT in his eyes for not only are we declared righteous by and in Christ through faith, but we are called to be righteous in thought, word and deed. And this calling applies every day whatever be the political/civil freedom (or lack thereof) in which we live.

Finally the Collect for the week:

“LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God: through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Whether we live in plenty or in poverty the world around us incites temptations within us; and whether we are in good or bad health, our flesh is also the source of temptations. To these we add the persistent work of the devil to tempt us directly, spirit to spirit, and via the world and the flesh…and he is as present in the USA as in Afghanistan!

Temptations in and of themselves are not sinful. Sin is to yield to them! So we pray that we shall be able to withstand them all and, importantly, go on to serve the Lord (whatever our outward circumstances) with pure hearts and minds.

Why not LEARN THESE PRAYERS OFF BY HEART AND PRAY THEM EACH MORNING!

The Revd Dr Peter Toon
October 15 2001