Praying Through the Collect for Purity

Being a new Christian, I’ll admit to a certain anxiety about prayer. What am I supposed to say? What if I make a total hash of it? My general plan has been to forge ahead anyway: I may indeed make a hash of it, but as a friend wryly commented, at least it’ll be my hash.

As I’ve been learning to pray, I’ve paid close attention to how my friends who are mature in their Christian faith pray, and also to the liturgy of my church. I’ve been especially moved by the short prayers called “collects” that are incorporated into various points of the service, varying for different themes and occasions. One that has been very helpful to me is the “Collect for Purity,” which I’ve prayed through and reflected on a great deal.

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

Almighty God. We aren’t just tossing our prayer to the wind, in the hopes that some spiritual force “out there” will hear us and respond. We’re speaking to our Maker, our heavenly Father, who is not just mighty but all-mighty, all-powerful.

…unto whom all hearts are open. Our hearts represent the seat of our selves, as we intuitively recognize in phrases like “wearing your heart on your sleeve,” being “kind-hearted,” or being good or bad “at heart.” Here our hearts are opened up: the lid is off the box, the shades are pulled up, the curtains are drawn back. Nothing stands between Almighty God and the very essence of our selves.

…all desires known. Not just some of our desires, the ones we feel OK about admitting to, but all of them. He knows even the ones that we don’t want to look at too closely. And our desires – not the things we say are our desires, or imagine or wish our desires to be, but the things that really are our desires. All desires, even the ones buried beneath our conscious knowledge. He knows even what we do not.

…and from whom no secrets are hid. There’s no corner dark enough, no box secure enough, to hide away a secret from Him. Being naked in a crowd has nothing on this: this is about being naked in your very soul. It’s frightening… and yet, here I start to feel that I can give myself up a little bit. He sees all the way through, every secret, every desire, every thought that we have and try to cover up… and loves us. That, I think, is why this collect speaks so powerfully to me. There’s no question of “Well, if He really knew me, He would never love and forgive me.” He does know me. The only thing that stands between me and His forgiveness is the attempt to hide myself from Him.

…Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts. When I opened up to God, and acknowledged that He sees and knows me, I could take the next step and ask Him to set me right. What is bent, He can straighten; what is broken, He can mend; what is stained, He can wash clean. We can’t do it on our own power, but God can – if we invite Him in to do it. He doesn’t remake us by force; He waits for us to ask for His help.

…by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit. The word “inspire” literally means “to breathe in”; here we ask the Holy Spirit to literally enter into us. We allow influences to work on us all the time, indirectly consenting to be shaped by the forces of the media, the opinions of our peers, the prevailing trends of our culture. In contrast, here we have an intentional act, asking God to send the Holy Spirit to remake our hearts. That’s an act of trust in the Lord that I found to be very difficult but ultimately an incredible relief: turning to Him with empty hands and an open heart, saying “make me whole.”

…that we may perfectly love thee. But why do we want to have clean hearts? So that we can have an easy conscience? No. We want clean hearts so that we can lift up those hearts in love to the One Who is, Himself, perfect love. We are broken, fallen, struggling human beings, so our love is far from perfect. It is love that strays, that is inattentive, that turns back into self-love at the earliest opportunity. But we can ask God to cleanse our hearts in order that through His love, we can learn how to love Him back.

…and worthily magnify thy Holy Name. With a new and clean heart I can do what I was made to do: freely obey, love, praise, and worship my Maker, with my body, heart, mind, and will. I am a fallen creature, so I can’t worthily praise Him by myself. But I can ask Him for help, and in His literally infinite mercy and patience He will help me.

…through Christ our Lord. We do all of this in, by, and through His Son, our Savior, our only mediator and advocate, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

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