Collect of the Week - 20

Collect for the 19th Sunday after Trinity:

Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae miserationis operatio;  quia
tibi sine te placere non possumus.  Per Dominum . . .

BCP (1549)

O God, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee:  Graunte
that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our
heartes;  Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

BCP (1662)

O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee;  Mercifully
grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Cranmer reversed the order of the two clauses, making more prominent the
anti-Pelagian idea that without God's help we can do nothing pleasing to
him.    He also inserted the phrase 'in all thynges' and rendered 'dirigat'
as 'direct and rule', thus making the collect slightly longer.  Cosin made
the appeal to the Holy Spirit explicit by changing 'the workyng of thy
mercie', which is a straight translation of 'tuae miserationis operatio' to
'thy Holy Spirit'.

We may notice the balance of the second clause in the Latin:

[quia]   Tibi sine te		placere non possumus.

Each clausula is a three-word phrase knit together by alliteration, and the
clause has the quality of a slogan, indeed may perhaps have been a slogan
chanted against the Pelagians.  God is the 'sine qua non' of our salvation.

                                        + + + + +

I have not so far in this series bothered to look at the formula with which
the Collects regularly end, but perhaps it is worthwhile doing so;  and I
shall quote from Josef A. Jungmann, "The Early Liturgy", p. 297.

"It is significant that all the orations which go back to the old Roman
tradition - those in the Leonianum and in the older Gelasianum - are
addressed to God the Father and invariably conclude with the formula:  'Per
Dominum nostrum' . . . and here and there the sources already mentioned give
the formula in full, so that we can see it is the same one we are familiar
with:  'Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum . . .'

"What is the precise meaning of this 'through . . . Christ?'  It is not an
oath, an adjuration:  Grant us this 'by' Christ, for His sake, in His name.
Much less is it intended to express the hope that God give us these gifts
through Christ, through His hands, so to say;  the formula is not concerned
with the coming down of the gifts but with the going up of our prayer.  Our
prayer should come to God through Christ who, as our representative, as our
head, as our High Priest, is already with God.  Christ is, so to speak, the
bridge over which our prayer can reach God.  He is the Mediator between God
and ourselves.

"All this is aptly expressed in the formula by the addition to the name of
our Savior of two qualifying phrases:  'Dominus noster' and 'Filius tuus'.
He is our 'Dominus';  we belong to Him, and are bound to Him firmly since
Baptism.  At the same time he is 'Filius tuus', that beloved Son of thine
who is joined most intimately with Thee in the unity of divine nature.  For
that reason we can surely trust that our prayer is heard.

"To the mention of Christ's name and of his office as Mediator a further
addition is made;   we could call it a relative predication   -  the clause
'Qui tecum vivit et regnat . . .'  Here we are not looking back to the
Savior who once sojourned upon this earth of ours, who once died for us.  We
are looking up to Him who lives now and forever, who lives as a glorious
King:  'vivit et regnat'.  Manifestly this is a reference to Christ as the
God-man, and of Him it is said that He lives and reigns 'in unitate Spiritus
Sancti.'  This is naturally not the same as saying 'cum Sancto Spiritu'.
The phrase 'in unitate Spiritus Sancti' means that He lives and reigns in
that unity which the Holy Spirit creates [* * *but see below].  He is the
unity between the Father and Son.  But perhaps we may think also of the
unity which the Holy Spirit creates in the redeemed;  it is the Communion of
the Saints of heaven.  This is the kingdom where Christ lives and reigns.

"However, because the Holy Spirit is named along with the Father and the
Son, the prayer receives a grand and solemn finale;  it overflows into the
profoundest mystery of our faith;  it dies away in the profession of belief
in the Triune God."

[* * * I registered an objection above to the idea of the Holy Spirit
'creating' the unity between Father and Son.  That unity is not something
created, but is of the essence of the uncreated God.  Indeed as Jungmann
himself goes on to say, He IS the unity between the Father and Son.  However
what Jungmann says about the Holy Spirit creating unity in the redeemed
seems to me very sound, and beautiful.]

Oriens.



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