December 24: Thomas Cranmer and Christmas Day
A big thank you to my dear friend Beth von Staats founder of QueenAnneBoleyn.com for sharing this with us today as our final Advent Calendar offering.
In the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, Thomas Cranmer shares two Collects for Christmas Day.
The First Collect
God, which makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ; grant that as we joyfully receive him for our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge, who liveth and reigneth, &c.
The first Collect for Christmas day is a translation from the sixth-century Gregorian Sacramentary, one of the earliest forms of the Roman Catholic liturgy.
The Second Collect (also repeated the Sunday after Christmas)
Almighty God, which has given us thy only begotten son to take our nature upon him, and this day to be born of a pure Virgin; grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost now and ever. Amen.
Like most of the most exquisitely crafted prayers in 1549 and 1555 Books of Common Prayer, this lovely biblical second Collect is of Thomas Cranmer’s original composition. As a Reformation Collect, the message illustrates Cranmer’s theological beliefs relative to the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ.