'This concise and excellent form of devotion': the Collect of Purity in the Communion Office

The previous post in this series referred to a distinctive of the Cranmerian Communion Office - opening with the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is followed by another distinctive, the Collect for Purity. A sign of its significance in Anglican piety is that most contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites continue to pray this Collect at the beginning of the liturgy. Ireland's BCP 2004 has a rubric following the Collect for Purity, stating "or another suitable opening prayer". Thankfully, in the twenty years since the introduction of BCP 2004, I have not attended a single celebration of Holy Communion in which the Collect for Purity has not been prayed. 

John Shepherd - in his 'The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion' in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - significantly points to this Collect as preparation both for reception of Holy Communion, when the Sacrament was administered, but also for the hearing of the Commandments during the more regular Ante-Communion:

We may consider this Collect, either as a prayer introductory to the Communion, or when there is no Communion, as preparatory to the rehearsal of the Ten Commandments, and the correspondent examination of our lives. In either case we have reason to admire the piety and judgment of the Compilers of our Liturgy in retaining this concise and excellent form of devotion. In the older Communion offices of the Western Church it was commonly used, and the Eastern Church likewise prayed to the same effect before the Communion: "O Lord, purify our souls and bodies from all pollutions of the flesh and spirit".

When the Sacrament is not administered, it maybe considered as merely preparatory to the repetition of the Ten Commandments, the fundamental rules of human duty. Before the original publication of the Law from Sinai, the people of Israel were sanctified by Moses and before these Commandments are read to us, we pray in this Collect, that our hearts may be purified by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; for if our hearts be defiled by sin we are not in a fit state to hear the law of God; we are not likely either fully to understand its force, or to profit by its influence.

Shepherd's understanding that the Collect for Purity prepares us both for Sacrament and Word (symbolised by the Commandments in 1662, but rarely found in contemporary rites) indicates why it continues to be found in contemporary Anglican eucharistic liturgies and to have an enduring role in Anglican piety: it is, to use Shepherd's words, a "concise and excellent form" of preparation for hearing the Word and receiving the holy Sacrament. This also reminds us, therefore, that Christ is present to us in Word and Sacrament, in both to be received by faith, with thanksgiving.

This also suggests a contrast between its use and equivalent texts in the other rites mentioned by Shepherd. While the text of the Collect for Purity can be found in pre-Reformation eucharistic rites, it was there used as a private vesting prayer for the priest. The comparable texts in the liturgies of the East are said sotto voce and can too easily be interpreted as a private priestly prayer. Cranmer, by contrast, radically redefined the Collect for Purity as a congregational prayer clearly heard by the people, with the congregation's 'Amen' concluding the Collect. It is, therefore, our common prayer, as minister and congregation gather for Word and Sacrament, as priest and people together petition for the cleansing indwelling of Holy Spirit, as together we prepare to receive Christ in the Word and the Sacrament.