The Collect for Purity

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name: through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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This traditional prayer is said near the beginning of the Episcopal and Anglican rites of Eucharist. It comes so early in the service that it's easy to overlook. I confess that years went by before I attended to it at all, much less actually prayed it. We might find ourselves distracted during the reading - settling children, finding the page, yet it is worthwhile to ponder the significance of these very ancient words.

The Collect for Purity is 1200 years old! Amazingly, Christians have been praying these words since AD 800’s - but not all Christians. For many years this prayer was said privately by the priest as he (always he) prepared for the service of the Eucharist. Regular worshippers never even heard it.

                                                     

In the 16th Century, Thomas Cranmer, the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and main author of the Book of Common Prayer (pictured above), moved this prayer from the sacristy to the sanctuary, so to speak, when he included it in the Eucharistic Rite itself. In the Anglican and Episcopal tradition, there are no exclusive prayers for the clergy. Our Book of Common Prayer is just that – used in common by laity and clergy alike.

A collect is a formal prayer with a formal structure. There is an address to God - Almighty God. This is like the salutation at the beginning of a letter.

Then follows the naming of an attribute of God – to you all hearts are open, all desires known and from you no secrets are hid. Does this claim make you nervous? It shouldn’t. These words affirm that God knows us thoroughly and lovingly. Who could know us better than our creator? Who could love us more? 

Next comes the petition - Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit. Notice that it is “the thoughts of our hearts” that need cleansing. In earlier times, the heart was considered the center of being, the self. A mental calculation such as "Did I thaw the roast?" would not interfere with worship so much as something on the heart, like anger, fear, or longing for anything not of God.

Next follows the aspiration or reason for the prayer - that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name. We want God to prepare us so that our worship will be true. This is basically a prayer to be able to pray. How often do we feel unable to pray? Our minds are not in the right frame; we worry that we cannot pray properly. Here we are asking God to correct these things so we may give ourselves entirely to worship.

Lastly is the doxology - through Christ our Lord. Followed by the all-important Amen, without which no written prayer is complete.

In the 14^th Century, an anonymous author wrote The Cloud of Unknowing which has become a classic of Christian contemplative prayer. The writer placed the Collect for Purity at the very beginning of his prologue. It follows here in the Middle English.

God, unto whom alle hertes ben open, and unto whom alle wille spekith, and unto whom no privé thing is hid: I beseche thee so for to clense the entent of myn heart with the unspekable gift of thi grace that I may parfiteliche love thee, and worthilich preise thee. Amen.