God's Mercy: Comfortable or Cleansing?
L et your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ___________________________________________________________ The above was the collect that was read this past Sunday, August 5th, 2012 at our 8 and 10AM services. At first it was a tough collect to read, a tough collect to comprehend and swallow. A collect is a prayer that the clergy person at an Episcopal Church reads to "collect" the people, gather us together as we begin our corporate worship. It is a little late in the service to really function that way as we have already said a different collect, something called the Collect for purity, and sung a hymn to gather us all together and mark the beginning of our corporate worship, but none the less, that is its function. I had an old