The First Sunday in Advent MMXI

The Collect

Stir up we beseech thee, thy power, O Lord, and come; that by thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen

 

Latin original Collect:

 

Exita, Domine, quaesumus, potentiam tuam et veni, ut ab imminentibus peccactorum nostrorum periculis te mereamur protegente eripi,te liberante salvari.  Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitate Spritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. – Gregorain Sacramentary

 

This collect begins the new church year. The Advent season ushers in the commemoration of his First Coming, and the anticipation of his Second. "Behold thy King cometh unto thee".   There is the expectation of his coming again – and in power.  "Now is our salvation nearer…"  This first prayer of the church year on First Advent looks ahead through all the coming days of the season.   

 

It is by his might alone that we are to be protected against the threatening peril of our sins.   He will accomplish this by bringing his mighty power to bear for his people.  In anticipation, we lift up our lives, our very souls, to our Lord. "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul; O my God, I trust in thee. Show me thy ways; teach me thy paths" 

 

The prayer is made directly to the Lord (Jesus). This is an unusual pattern in the collect format, but one that may be found here because it is by his work that we have been rescued, and by his sacrifice and victory over death that we have been saved.  

The Advent of our God http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/d/v/adventof.htm

(Portions of the above are paraphrased and include passages cited from The Collect of the Day, by Paul Zeller Strodach, 1939, The United Lutheran Press, Philadelphia pages -27)  http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/s/t/r/strodach_pz.h

 

The Ancient Collect: Its history and form 

http://orderofcenturions.org/collect-form.html

Finis

 

Released by Primus Pilus
Legio Christi-Ecclesia Militans
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another" [St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14:19]

* ORDO CENTURIONUM * IN HOC SIGNO VINCES * TIME DEUM ET OPERARE IUSTITIAM