Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 20th March 2025
A Handy little Prayer: the Collect for the 2nd Sunday of Lent
In yesterday’s reflections, I explored the idea that as human beings, there are two parts to who we are: an “outward” part and an “inward” part. The word “body” is often used to describe the “outward” part and the word “soul” to describe the “inward” part. Human beings are a combination of body and soul, and this understanding of what it means to be human is reflected in the Collect for the 2nd Sunday of Lent: “Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which my assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”.
This prayer brings us before our loving Heavenly Father as whole human beings – human beings that are blessed not only with an “outward” part (the “body”) but also with an “inward” part (the “soul”).
But it not only brings us before God as whole human beings. It also makes three interesting suggestions as to what we might pray for.
To start with, it prays that God may “keep us outwardly in our bodies , and inwardly in our souls”. The English word “keep” can have so many different associations. I wonder what it brings to mind? For me, it speak powerfully of a sense of protection. In my mind’s eye, I am picturing a massive stone structure at the heart of a castle, designed to keep the garrison safe during times of siege – the structure that architectural historians usually refer to as “a Keep”. I am also thinking of a person, an object or a piece of information being in someone’s safekeeping”. Again, there is a sense of safety, protection and security. We are praying that God protects us – that we are in his safekeeping. We leave the details up to God. The key thing is that, whatever happens, God will keep us safe.
This leads to the second point. Yes, we pray that God will keep us safe. But safe from what? Again, the Collect uses a general word: “adversities” . We pray that “we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body”. Experience teaches us that such “adversities” come in all shapes and sizes. We see some coming towards us, but others come upon us quite unexpectedly. Such bodily “adversities” may come as the result the aging process – as we grow older, it is inevitable that some of our bodily functions are not quite what they were when we were in our teenage years. But I think it is significant that the Collect thinks in terms of “adversity” rather than “calamity”. It is recognising that things can happen to our bodies which make life harder, perhaps much harder, but such things do not diminish who we are. As the phrase goes, they are things sent to try us. They are a challenge to us, but with God’s help, human beings are usually capable of rising to the challenges they face. In fact, human beings are pretty good at doing so, and this is one reason why our species has survived as long as it has.
And what of the challenges faced by our “inward” selves? The Collect describes these in terms of “evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul”. I think it is a common experience for human beings to find that sometimes a bad thought seems to come into the mind, as if from nowhere. Indeed, sometimes it might feel that we are being “attacked” or “assaulted” by a barrage of such thoughts. We may describe such thoughts as “temptations” , or consider them to be “evil” , but whatever language we use, we know that such thoughts are bad thoughts. We know or sense that such thoughts need to be rejected. We may entertain them for a little while, and even find them strangely attractive, but most of us will end up rejecting them in the end, in the knowledge that such thoughts are not conducive to human flourishing, for ourselves or for others. In the words of the Collect, we realise that such thoughts will “hurt the soul” . But before we know it, the “evil thoughts” come back again, and renew their “ assault “ on our minds, so the process of spiritual warfare has to start up again.
So our Collect paints a picture of human beings facing frequent challenges to their physical and spiritual well-being. It asks for God’s help, so that we may be protected in both body and soul. But do we really need God’s help to do this? Are not our own resources sufficient? We shall look at this question in tomorrow’s reflections, the last in the current series.