The First Sunday in
Lent.
Psalm
32
eati, quorum
BLESSED is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven : and whose sin is
covered.
2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin : and in whose
spirit there is no guile.
3. For while I held my tongue : my bones consumed away through my daily
complaining.
4. For thy hand is heavy upon me day and night : and my moisture is
like the drought in summer.
5. I will acknowledge my sin unto thee : and mine unrighteousness have
I not hid.
6. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord : and so thou forgavest
the wickedness of my sin.
7. For this shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee, in
a time when thou mayest be found : but in the great water-floods they shall not
come nigh him.
8. Thou art a place to hide me in, thou shalt preserve me from trouble
: thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.
9. I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go
: and I will guide thee with mine eyes.
10. Be ye not like to horse and mule, which have no understanding :
whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle. lest they fall upon thee.
11. Great plagues remain for the ungodly : but whoso putteth his trust
in the Lord, mercy embraceth him on every side.
12. Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the Lord : and be joyful,
all ye that are true of heart.
The Collect.
O LORD, who for our sake
didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence,
that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions
in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and
reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
{The
Collect from the First Day of Lent is to be read every day in Lent after the
Collect appointed for the Day.}
Old
Testament Reading: Isaiah 58.1-14
Psalter:
Psalm 51, 54 | 119.1-32
Epistle
Reading: 2 Corinthians 6.1-10
Gospel
Reading: St. Matthew 4.1-11
Toon: “This is one of three Collects in the BCP of 1662 addressed to
the Lord Jesus Christ instead of to his Father. The others are for Advent III
and St. Stephen's Day. The reason why this Collect is addressed to Jesus is
because of the desire at the beginning of Lent to identify with him in his
forty days & nights fast and by the Father's grace to reap the spiritual
benefits of union with him.
It was composed for the first Book of the Common Prayer of
1549 and replaced one, addressed to the Father, that had been used in the
medieval Church. This Latin prayer in the judgment of Archbishop Cranmer put
too much emphasis upon the value before God as a good work of fasting. As
translated it is: "O God, who purifiest thy Church by the yearly
observance of the Lenten fast: Grant unto thy household, that it may follow out
in good works those holy inspirations which it endeavours to obtain from thee
by abstinence. Through Jesus Christ our Lord."
So the new prayer does not lessen the obligation to fasting but identifies
fasting with the Lord Jesus (the Gospel for the Day describes his fasting) who
as the New Man, the Second Adam, fasted in body by abstinence from food and
drink, and in soul, by his bearing our sins. In our Lord there was no sin and
since fasting is the expression of penitence, humiliation and mourning, his
fasting was not for himself. He fasted for us both in his identification with
man as a sinner before God, his Father, and also as providing an example of
godliness to man.
Perhaps the petition in this Collect is inspired by Romans 8:13.
"If ye live after the flesh [as your natural bodily desires and affections
propose] ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit (by his presence, power and
guidance) do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." By the
discipline of fasting in Lent, which is offered in love to the Lord Jesus as a
service unto him, we place ourselves in the position where the Holy Spirit is
able to help us mortify, or put to death, the worldly, fleshly desires of our
human nature and body, and in their place follow the inspiration and guidance
of the Holy Ghost, thereby enabling us to obey Christ's teaching. In all this
Christ is our Strength and our Example.
The Collect ends with an ascription of praise and glory to the Holy
Trinity for the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Incarnate Son, is the Second Person
thereof.
On this Sunday and during the week the Church continues to pray the
Collect for Ash Wednesday” (http://www.pbs.org.uk/the-bcp/first-sunday-in-lent).
