O God,
you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ:
Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer,
may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
(BCP 212)
Historical Introduction
In the 1979 BCP, we have three Collects for the Nativity of our Lord: Christmas Day. This, the first of the three, is, as Marion Hatchett notes, “a good transition from Advent to the Christmas season.” This ancient Collect was prayed at the Christmas vigil mass (the Christmas Eve service) from the 8th century through at least the 11th century.[1] In the 1549 BCP, Thomas Cranmer modified the Preamble and Acknowledgement from what is translated from the Latin as “God, who makes us glad with the annual expectation of our redemption” to its present form and shifted its use to the first of the two eucharists of Christmas Day.[2] The 1552 BCP, with its single Proper (Collect and lessons) for Christmas Day, did not include this Collect. Then, in our American BCP of 1892, this Collect was restored as an option “when the 1549 provision was restored for optional use at the first service” if the Church celebrated two eucharists on Christmas Day.[3]
The Preamble
The Preamble: “O God” does not provide us with any additional information beyond to whom this prayer is addressed.
The Acknowledgement
The Acknowledgement: “you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ” describes grace given to us so that on this annual celebration, our common heart (affections) can be tuned to gladness. The experience of pleasure in the annual festival is a gift to the Church as we focus our attention on the mystery of the Incarnation (the Son taking on all that it means to be human; Hebrews 2:14) and the mystery of the Trinity (Jesus as the Father’s only Son, John 1:1-18 and the Holy Spirit as the person of the Trinity through whom and by whom we receive both the revelation of the mysteries and the grace to respond to this revelation with gladness, Romans 15:13).
The Petition
The Petition: “Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge” continues to focus on the grace given that affects our emotional response (joyful) and our ability to trust while also shifting our contemplation from the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of the Incarnation to the mystery of our salvation. The Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, is both our Redeemer and our Judge—by receiving Jesus as the one through whom we are freed from “the power of evil, sin, and death” through his first coming (Catechism: Sin and Redemption, BCP 848), we can be assured that he will continue to love us and show mercy to us when he comes again (Hebrews 13:8; Romans 8:1-2, John 8:36).
While this Collect does not have an Aspiration, the effects of the grace we ask for in this prayer are stated in the Acknowledgement and the Petition: we ask that the Church, as a whole, be made glad and joyful as we contemplate together the three great mysteries of our faith. And we ask that through this contemplation we increase in confident in our salvation.
The Pleading
The Pleading: “who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever,” ends this prayer with the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the eternal consistency of the love that each person of the Holy Trinity has for us.
For your consideration
The holidays can be difficult times for some of us as our culture imposes its priorities upon us. How might sharing in the annual celebration of Christ’s first coming serve to refocus our gaze from all of the busyness to awe and wonder at the three great mysteries of our faith (the mysteries of the Incarnation, our Redemption, and the Holy Trinity)?
How has the Holy Spirit opened the heart of the Church to experience the gift of gladness and joy over the first coming of Jesus since last Christmas? How has your own heart been opened to this joy and gladness?
How might opening our hearts to experience the gift of gladness and joy over Christ’s first coming help us to live confidently in our call to serve others as we watch for Jesus’ second coming?
O God,
you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ:
Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer,
may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
© 2022 Donna Hawk-Reinhard, edited by Kate McCormick
Want to know more about the Collect format or this series of meditations? You can find that information here. Meditations on the second and third Collects for Christmas Day will be posted soon.
[1] The 8th century Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries and the 11th century Sarum missal record this Collect for use at the Christmas vigil mass. Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 168.
[2] Hatchett, 168. The 1549 BCP does not include Propers for a Christmas vigil mass.
[3] Hatchett, 168.