Exciting Holiness
‘The celebration of the Holy Spirit
at work in many different ways
in the lives of Christian men and women
down the ages,
whose examples excite us to holiness,
is a sign of the great cloud of witnesses
with which we are surrounded.’
From the essay
Daily Prayer in the Life of the Church
in
Celebrating Common Prayer
(which first appeared in The Daily Office SSF 1981)
Collects and Readings
for the Festivals and Lesser Festivals
of the Calendars
of
The Church of England
The Church of Ireland
The Scottish Episcopal Church
and
The Church in Wales
Copyright information
Exciting Holiness
is published by Canterbury Press Norwich
a publishing imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Limited,
a registered charity,
St Mary’s Works, St Mary’s Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 3BH
www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk
copyright © European Province of the Society of Saint Francis, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission, which should be sought from the editor
For further copyright and permission information see here
First published September 1997
Reprinted 1997 (twice), 1998
Revised July 1999
Second Edition July 2003
Reprinted 2005
Third Edition May 2007
Reprinted 2010
Fourth edition 2012
Edited by Brother Tristam SSF
and Simon Kershaw
For further details, corrections and updates
see www.excitingholiness.org
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 85311 806 7
Typeset by crucix www.crucix.com
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of
Brother
TRISTAM
SSF
born 20 March 1946
died 28 December 2002
Contents
Introduction
When, in 1935, Bishop Walter Frere first produced his Collects, Epistles and Gospels for the Lesser Feasts According to the Calendar set out in 1928, he was providing, for the first time in one book, collects and readings for use on ‘black letter’ saints’ days in the Church of England. This tradition was maintained by the excellent book compiled by Martin Draper and George Timms, The Cloud of Witnesses, produced to complement the publication of The Alternative Service Book 1980, and by many others throughout the Anglican Communion.
The authorization of a new Calendar in the Church of England, first in 1997, and subsequently with slight modification in Common Worship, and including – for the first time since the Reformation – authorized proper collects for the ‘Black Letter’ days, meant that an entirely new companion was required. The compilation of this companion was undertaken by Brother Tristam SSF, a member of the Liturgical Commission, and of the committee which had drafted the Calendar, and the first edition of this book was published in 1997.
At the same time as the Church of England has been revising its Calendar, so too have the other Anglican Churches in Britain and Ireland. These Calendars generally share many of the same commemorations, occasionally with a different emphasis or date, but each of these Churches also has its own selection of local commemorations. The Church of