Proper 15: The Roving Collect

Proper 15 The Sunday closest to August 17

Almighty God, who hast given thy only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavor ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The “propers” for Sunday consist of the Collect, the Lectionary Readings, and the Proper Preface to the Sanctus that the Celebrant says in the Eucharistic Prayer following the introductory dialogue between Celebrant and People. For lectionary purposes, the Sunday closest to August 17 is designated Proper 15. On the calendar, Sunday, August 14, 2011 is the 9th Sunday after Pentecost.

The relationship of the Proper and the Date remain the same from year to year, but the actual date changes. Proper 15 will be appointed again next year, but it will fall on August 19, 2012, which will be the 12th Sunday after Pentecost. The shifting is because the date of Pentecost depends on the date of Easter, which is different each year depending on the “Golden Number.” The Golden Number is part of the formula {BCP p.880} for figuring out when Easter is: the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on or after the vernal equinox. Sounds like something from Harry Potter.

The collect for next Sunday was composed for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and appointed for the Second Sunday after Easter. In our 1979 Book, an older and more suitable collect dating from the Gregorian sacramentary, the Sarum missal, the Leonine sacramentary, and the Gelasian sacramentary is used for Easter 2, and this collect moved to Proper 15.

Theologically, in the introduction -- which is where the basic theology is mainly found in a collect -- the collect asserts that God gave the Son, that it was the one and only Son; and that the Son was given to the world for two reasons: as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and as an example of how we are to live. If you want to know what Episcopalians believe, look at what we pray in worship. There it is, that is what we believe about God.

Next is the petition. This collect prays that we may be thankful for the divine gift of Jesus, and that as we go about our daily lives we may do our best to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, to live as He lived. The rest of the theology is that the very act of praying this shows that we believe God can and will do it for us.

As usual, the collect is offered in the Name of God: Father, +Son, and Holy Spirit. And let all the people say Amen.

TW+