The Book of Common Prayer contains a series of Advent prayers (called collects) which are prayed each week through the season leading up to Christmas (starting on page 211). The prayers are a great sources of inspiration and theological foundation through this holy season.
These prayers are called collects, because we pray them together, collectively. And it’s that collective nature that makes them great for group discussion too. So as we move through the Advent season, we’re digging into and discussing these amazing prayers. And my hope is that we’re able to pull out some of the theological richness for this season, but also that these Advent prayers come alive in our hearts as we pray them together.
Collect for the First Sunday of Advent
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
In this collect, there are a few things that stand out in our discussion, starting with the request that God would give us the grace we need. By definition, this is an unmerited gift. We don’t deserve it, so it’s not something we’re entitled to. One interesting perspective that some of the youth have on this request for grace is that it’s not only asking for it for ourselves, but also that God would essentially equip us with it to use it on His behalf with others. And that’s an interesting perspective when considering what we’re asking for the grace for…
We’re asking for the grace to cast away the works of darkness. Many of the youth felt that not only should we be looking to cast out darkness in our own lives, but also that we should be God’s tools for casting it out in the world around us. Whenever we see injustice, we (the Church) should be there to rise up against it. And the way we do it (in our lives or in the world around us) is with the armor of light. It’s significant that light defeats darkness, not through some struggle or fight. But it wins by simply existing.
The reason for all of this is so that when Christ returns, we can rise to the life immortal with Him. Our work “in this mortal life” is to fight the good fight, knowing that one day we’ll be able to stand tall with Christ when He comes to rule “in his glorious majesty.” So this whole prayer is about a hope we have in the future, but not without exploring our role as light-bearers in the here and now.
Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The first thing that stood out with thee youth is that last week’s started with “Almighty God,” speaking to His power, while this week starts out with “Merciful God,” speaking to His compassion and love for us. Right away this set the tone that while God is certainly strong, His heart for us is gentle and loving, not wanting to power over us. He definitely is both, but this is another perspective on who He is and His character.
Then we discussed this idea that He has sent the message ahead of time that we need to pay attention to how we live. And that if we go on our own down the wrong path, that we need to do a 180 degree turn and come back to Him. This idea of repentance isn’t just about being sorry for our sins, rather it’s about a complete turning away from them and to start heading in the right direction.
And here we are asking for “grace” to do this. It sort of calls back to discussions we’ve had about the Baptismal Covenant. With each of the questions we’re asked about commitments we make as Christians, we respond with, “I will, with God’s help.” It’s not something we can do on our own, but it requires our own actions in the right direction. Asking God for the grace (unmerited favor, or unearned gift) that we need to repent and forsake our sin, is basically recognizing that we can’t do that on our own. Fortunately, He has made the way!
When we do this, the goal is that we, “greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.” There are two ways it can go. If we chose our own (sinful) selfish path in life, then it’s with the opposite of joy that we meet Him with on that Judgement Day. But if we, with His help, go down the right path in life, that time will be a happy, glorious one!
Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
With this prayer, the youth had incredible thoughts on nearly every word. Like with the opening statement, asking God to “stir up [His] power.” Thinking about stirring, we discussed how that’s like when you’re cooking a pot of chili and you need to stir it up to prevent the stuff on the bottom from burning and ruining the whole pot. You stir it up to make sure everything gets evenly cooked and to spread all of the goodness to where it’s needed. It’s about the distribution to the whole pot in order to make it all good. And that’s what we’re asking the Lord to do with us.
But some of the biggest things to stand out related to the contrast between recognizing God’s strength and power and might along with his mercy and compassion and tenderness. He is so powerful that He can create the entire Universe by merely speaking. So He’s certainly powerful enough to just blink us out of existence if He weren’t happy with us. But then in His tender mercy, He spares us… and He makes a way to save us.
And it’s worth pointing out that when we talk about our sins (calling back to the definition of sin outlined in the Catechism), we see that it’s all about us making our own self-centered decisions that separate us from God, each other, and all of Creation. Ultimately, it’s not something that’s happened to us, but a condition we’ve brought upon ourselves. And in that state, we’re asking God to heal and restore and deliver us from our own self-destruction.
As we started drawing our conclusions about this prayer, and look back over what’s happening in the progression from the first two prayers, we really start to see the “reason for the season.” It’s about looking within ourselves and seeing how badly we need a Savior, and looking forward to coming of the One Who Can Save us. We also recognized that with Advent being the beginning of the Church calendar, how important it us for us to start the year in this way, and how it sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
That first word, purify, set the tone for the rest of the conversation on this prayer. In a basic sense, it has to do with being cleansed. But it goes much deeper than that. Two examples came up to help us get an understanding of what’s going on here. The first was the idea of how gold get’s purified through the refining process. It’s a process that might not always feel good, but it essentially burns away impurities, leaving us with pure gold. The other example was how in a restaurant the dishes get washed, dried, and sanitized to ensure they truly are clean. Without that level of cleansing, it could leave the dishes with germ that could contaminate anything else that touches it.
And what are we asking God to purify? Our conscience. We live with imperfections and “germs” (of sin) that need to be taken away. So we ask Go to help us remove that junk.
How do we ask that He purify us? Through daily visitation with Him. And that’s something that goes both ways… By having Him come to us. But also just like when we get a visitor at our house, we drop everything to go meet with that visitor. And then we pay attention to them to take in what the Visitor has to offer us, but we also try to be good hosts and do what we can to bless them for their presence. The key here is that we are intentional about spending that time with God every day, and not rely just on getting filled up on Sundays (and riding it out for the rest of the week without any effort).
What is this purification for? So that when Christ returns, we are ready for Him. He should be able to find His mansion (dwelling place) in us. And this is a mansion, not a 2/1 condo. That means that we give him everything. Our entire being is His, not just a small (condo) part of our lives.
There’s a sense in this prayer that points back to the anticipation we feel in waiting for His coming. And in the meantime, every day is an opportunity for us to prepare for that glorious moment.
Final Thoughts on the Advent Prayers
This has been an incredible study with our youth! The conversations have been rich and robust, and they have greatly influenced their thinking. And they youth are picking up ideas that they’ll apply to their lives well beyond the season of Advent.
When a few of them were asked what they liked about this study, the answers had to do with things like, “Now I really understand the reason for the season of Advent.” And, “I always thought of this as Christmas time. But Advent is very different than Christmas.” During Christmas, we celebrate that our Savior has come. In Advent, we’re waiting. But it’s not idle waiting. It’s active waiting and preparing ourselves for when He comes.
As a result of this study, our youth are wanting to do more of things like our prayer experiences, learning about different forms of prayer (like Daily Examen prayer), and studying the Collect of Lent when we get to that season.
It’s amazing to see our youth fired up about prayer (and studying great prayers from history)!