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Summary
- The Collect for Purity (“Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open”) opens Holy Communion in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and serves as an invocation in the 1906 Presbyterian Book of Common Worship.
- Six short opening prayers for an ordinary Sunday, each under 80 words, including prayers for unity and for a humble, attentive heart, sit beside traditional Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic (“Come, Holy Ghost”) and Orthodox (“O heavenly King”) prayers quoted from public-domain books.
- Psalm 100, Psalm 95 and short verses such as Psalm 118:24 and Habakkuk 2:20 can serve as a call to worship, and the 1928 Prayer Book gives an opening sentence for each season.
- Further prayers cover a Communion Sunday, a baptism, a hard week in the church, the sermon, the team before the doors open and a small group or cell meeting.
- The old service books open with a verse, “Let us pray” and the prayer; the Catholic General Instruction of the Roman Missal asks for a brief silence before the opening prayer, which it calls the Collect.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Exodus 20:24; Psalm 19:14; 34:3; 46:1; 95:1–2, 6–7; 100:1–5; 118:24; 122:1; Habakkuk 2:20; Matthew 18:20; 28:19; John 6:37; 17:21; 1 Corinthians 11:26; James 4:6). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928, as printed by D. B. Updike, 1930. Morning Prayer, opening sentences and rubrics, pp. 3–5; Holy Communion, the Lord’s Prayer and the Collect (“Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open”), p. 67; Family Prayer, “For the Spirit of Prayer,” p. 594. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- The Book of Common Worship (Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.). Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work, 1906. Morning Service, sentences and The Invocation, pp. 1–3; The Commandments, The Invocation, p. 27. https://archive.org/details/bookofcommonwor00pres/page/3/mode/1up
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Prayers before Mass, pp. 89–90. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/89/mode/1up
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, tr. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. 1906. The Third Hour and the Divine Liturgy, Office of Oblation, p. 67. https://archive.org/details/cu31924029363128
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. General Instruction of the Roman Missal, chapter 2, paragraph 54, “The Collect.” https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-2
