To Put On the Armor of Light

A reflection on the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent

I realized that I’ve been writing these reflections on the Book of Common Prayer’s “Collects for the Christian Year” for almost an entire year! I wrote about today’s collect back in December of 2023, but didn’t write anything on the other collects of the Advent season. So after I reflect on the collects for the Sundays of Advent, I’ll have a liturgical year’s worth of collect reflections. Maybe I’ll collate them into a resource of some kind. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, today is the First Sunday of Advent, and the Collect of the Day is:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Photo by Max Beck on Unsplash

Grace to cast away the works of darkness

The first collect of the liturgical year wastes no time in getting to the core petition: without the usual naming of a quality or action of God, we find ourselves praying “give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.” This arrangement lends a sense of urgency and fervency to the prayer. We need grace, God, if we’re going to live in the light.