Journeying mercies

Amongst the joys of the Prayer Book tradition are those prayers and collects that, while not often used, can enrich our prayer when we either stumble upon them or reach for them on a particular occasion.

And so it was for me this week with this collect:

Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I was aware of the collect but, before recent days, cannot remember the last time I prayed it. On Wednesday evening, however, for some reason I instinctively turned to it at the close of an Ante-Communion.

It is one of the 'Table Prayers', additional collects provided in the 1662 Holy Communion for use "when there is no Communion".  The rubric recognises the richness of these collects when it goes on to state that they can also be more widely used "after the Collects either of Morning or Evening Prayer, Communion, or Litany, by the discretion of the Minister".

Thankfully the Church of Ireland BCP 2004 has retained the 'Table Prayers' in Order One Holy Communion - to all intents and purposes, 1662/1926.  And so to this particular collect I turned on Wednesday evening when, because of the unusual absence of a congregation, the evening Eucharist became Ante-Communion.

I have used collects from the 'Table Prayers' before at Ante-Communion, but not this one.  My preference has been for "O Almighty Lord" (taken from Prime) or "Prevent us, O Lord" (from a Sarum Lenten collect).  Something brought me to the words of this collect on Wednesday evening, some recognition in my memory that these words would have particular resonance.

The previous day I had been involved in a quite serious traffic accident.  I thankfully emerged without serious injury, but badly shaken.

This collect was a particular comfort on Wednesday evening and the days since.

I have been reflecting on why.  I wondered about the origins of the collect.  In A Prayer for All Seasons: The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer, we are told that this collect was an adaptation by Cranmer of "a Sarum collect for travellers", itself taken from the Gelasian Sacramentary.  Procter and Frere note that it was taken from the Sarum Missa pro iter agentibus: the Mass for travellers.

The day after being shaken by a car accident, I had turned to a prayer that for centuries had blessed and sustained travellers, a collect taken up by Cranmer and placed in the BCP Holy Communion.  A prayer which, said in the parish church on a Sunday, seeks blessings on the journeys to be undertaken on the week ahead.  A prayer which, said the day after a car accident, seeks God's "most gracious and ready help" as I return to driving.  

Before turning to the collect on Wednesday evening, I was unaware of its roots in the ancient prayer for travellers.  I did have a vague sense, however, that this collect was appropriate for that day.  Somewhere within my memory, I had a dim recognition that the words and rhythms of this collect would touch my heart and soul that evening.

It has been a reminder for me that the Book of Common Prayer is a treasury of prayer.  That the collects often gather up the experience of Christian prayer over very many centuries, sometimes fom the earliest sacramentaries, offered in resonant, dignified vernacular.  That the rarely used collects of the Prayer Book are a special part of the treasury, to be revisited regularly, that when circumstances demand we may turn to be enriched and sustained by them.  Here is one of the blessings of having in a single volume all the Church's prayer, available also for our individual prayer, whether of thanksgiving or intercession.

I end today's post with a much better known prayer from the Prayer Book tradition, offered here in thanksgiving for "late mercies":

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men; [*particularly to those who desire now to offer up their praises and thanksgivings for thy late mercies vouchsafed unto them.] We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.