Collect of the Week - 48
Dominica infra Octavas Ascensionis
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, fac nos tibi semper et devotam gerere voluntatem,
et majestati tuae sincero corde servire. Per Dominum.
'Almighty everlasting God, make us always to bear a devout will for you,
and with a sincere heart to serve your majesty. Through our Lord . . .'
'devotus' is 'devoted, attached, faithful'; and in Christian use, 'pious,
devout, obedient'.
One has to sensitive to the different shade of meanings attached to many
words by Christian writers. cf. Plater and White, 'A Grammar of the
Vulgate': 'The deeper thoughts which underlay the original Hebrew and Greek
demanded not only new words but a new use of old words, in order to express
the higher ideals of the new faith and the new life.'
There is no obvious connection between the collect and the Ascension; as
far as I can see it could have been used on any Sunday, or indeed weekday,
of the year. The Reformers ignored it and composed a new one based more
explicitly on the scriptures. The BCP collect is a fine prayer in its way,
but its way is a different way from that of the Latin collects, which are as
brief as can be and usually allude only obliquely to the scriptures. Here
there are several direct quotations from the New Testament, given at length:
'O God the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with
great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not
comfortless, but send to us thine Holy ghost to comfort us, and exalt us
unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth
and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.'
Oriens.
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