Fifteenth Sunday after Whitsun

Ecclésiam tuam, Dómine, miserátio continuáta mundet et múniat: et quia sine te non potest salva consístere; tuo semper múnere gubernétur. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

O Lord, we beſeech thee, let thy continual pity cleanſe and defend thy Church; and becauſe it cannot continue in ſafety without thy ſuccour, preſerve it evermore by thy help and goodneſs; through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.

Keynote: "Cleanse and Defend Thy Church"

This collect is a prayer for the helping of the Church, and it indicates clearly in what manner this help must be sought. The Church must be "cleansed and defended", and in the wording of the collect we see that the cleansing must precede the defending. It is the enemies within our gates that are to be feared, not the enemies without, and those enemies are not persons, but conditions.

If the Church were as perfect as her Lord, she could safely "answer not a word" to her attackers. The cleansing of the Church is her defence from her enemies. By heart-searching let her rid herself of her vulnerable points.

The collect goes on to remind us that the Church cannot continue without God's succour. Unless the power of God uses the Church as its channel of manifestation, the Church has no reason for existence of manifestation, the Church has no reason for existence, and her buildings would be as the temples of Greece from who altars the gods have departed. Do not, however, let us make the mistake of thinking that the Church is its organisation, its parishes and bishoprics; it does not have its habitation on the physical plane, but is built not with hands, eternal in the heavens. [This is slightly odd. The Church transcends the physical world, of course, but it has members not just in heaven (and purgatory) but also on earth.] The Church is the company of souls, living, unborn [Again, no! A soul enters the Church with baptism. Unborn children are not baptised and so are not members of the Church.], or born into the life beyond the grave, who acknowledge its discipline. [The Church's members are subject to her discipline whether they acknowledge it or not.] It is through these that the power of God works, not through the mundane organisation, necessary as that is. [The power of God works through the sacraments, which are effected "mundanely" (i.e. on earth) by members of the Church's "mundane" organisation.] An oak wood is composed of oak trees, and a living Church is composed of living souls. If we want to defend the Church from her enemies, let us purify our own souls and lift them up to God that His power may be seen and draw all men unto us.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]