Gracious Father,
whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven
to be the true bread which gives life to the world:
Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(BCP 219)
Historical and theological introduction
As noted by Marion Hatchett, the traditional Collect for this Sunday “beseeches relief from deserved punishment.”[1] This Collect, new to our present Prayer Book, “echoes the lections and reinforces the traditional custom of this day as ‘mothering Sunday’.”[2] The “mothering Sunday” reference comes from the English and Irish long-running practice of returning on this Sunday to the church where one was baptized.[3] The Church has long considered the baptismal font as both tomb (where we die to sin) and womb (from whence we are birthed into new life in Christ).
Preamble
While the Preamble, “Gracious Father,” is used just this once in the Collects of the Church Year, describing God as gracious or asking for God to be gracious is used in two other Collects, both also in Lent (The Second Sunday in Lent and Good Friday). Considering the numerous times that we ask directly for God’s grace in the Collects, this modern Collect makes explicit that God is full of grace and is gracious toward us.
Acknowledgement
The Acknowledgement, “whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world” is a summary of John 6:32-33. When we receive the bread during Holy Communion, we hear either “the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in everlasting life” or “the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven” (BCP 365). Both of these phrases come from this section of the Gospel of John.
Petition
The Petition, “Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him” combines John 6:34 with John 6:53-58 in a concise request for our gracious Father to unite us with his Son through the Eucharist. Prior to receiving the Eucharist, in Holy Baptism, we invite the Spirit to abide in us (John 14:16) and we are each “initiated into Christ’s Body the Church (BCP 298). In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus’ body into our own for our sake to heal us and give life to us. Through the Holy Eucharist, we ask to be made of one spirit in Christ (BCP 372). This sacramental participation in Jesus’ body has real effects: by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become what we eat! Through Baptism and Eucharist, we become the Church, the Body of Christ.
Pleading
The Pleading, “who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen,” invokes not only the Father and the Son, but also the Holy Spirit. In each of our Eucharistic Prayers, we ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify the bread (and the wine) so that they will be for us the body and blood of Christ and that we, too, are sanctified (BCP 363, 369, 371-2, and 375).
For your consideration:
How does receiving Eucharist inform your life? How does Holy Eucharist shape us as a parish, as a denomination, and as the Church universal?
How can meditating on the amazing gift of abiding in the Son and the Son abiding in us be life-giving for you as an individual and for us as a parish?
Gracious Father,
whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven
to be the true bread which gives life to the world:
Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
© 2021 Donna Hawk-Reinhard, revised in 2022 and 2023; edited by Kate McCormick
Want to know more about the Collect format or this series of meditations? You can find that information here. https://www.transfigurationchurch.org/prayer/invitation-and-introduction-to-meditations-on-the-collects
[1] Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 175.
[2] Hatchett, 175. Hatchett also says that the new Collect echoes the old tradition of Refreshment Sunday, which is about half-way through Lent and traditionally was a time when the fast was relaxed. However, the first English Prayer Book attempted to overturn the practice of a Lenten fast and replace it with a season of penitence. Our present BCP continues this emphasis upon penitence rather than fasting (see The Collect for Ash Wednesday and the associated meditation).
[3] Hatchett, 175.