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Morning Devotion for the Season of Advent

December 8, 2023

The Invitatory

Watch, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find your asleep.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: 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.

Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones

The Sarum Rite was the liturgical use of the Latin rites developed at Salisbury Cathedral and used from the late eleventh century until the English Reformation. In this Rite, the priest recited the Collect for Purity in the sacristy (the anteroom to the church) prior to the liturgy, together with other acts of preparation for worship. Archbishop Cranmer moved the prayer into public worship in the 1552 Prayer Book.

I have always found this prayer to be riveting, moving, and deeply personal. It invokes for me a strong sense of intimacy with God, even in a public space. I have come into God’s presence acknowledging all of me to him without hesitation, but in complete confidence that God knows me and that there is real assistance available to me given by the Holy Spirit to offer to God the love and glory that are without question due to him. I feel grateful to have this opportunity to be before God and give myself over to him. In this Collect we all acknowledge that our ability to celebrate the liturgy, that is to worship, is entirely predicated upon God’s grace. The prayer, initially one of preparation for the priest, has become one of preparation for the congregation to enter into worship. Grace is not a commodity. It is a relationship, that is “God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 358)

Through our liturgical year we experience the unfolding of our human encounter with God. Our worship expresses our experiences in relationship with God, though he is beyond time, and is present to us. The seasons of our worship offer a series of lenses through which we gain tiny glimpses of our relationship to God. In this particular season of Advent, in which we prepare to receive in his glory the presence of Christ, it is altogether fitting that we open our liturgy preparing to worship. Each day during this season of Advent may we experience small openings in which we perceive God’s grace active in the world and particularly in our worship together. May we gather all these experiences and glimpses together so that they form a larger picture for us, though incomplete and imperfect, of the God we come to know in Christ Jesus. We may not know at first how we are to approach God and to prepare to worship. Fortunately, the Collect for Purity opens this for us.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.