April 29: Raising Up, Making New

By the Venerable Calhoun Walpole,
Archdeacon of the Diocese of South Carolina

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look
favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred
mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry
out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being
raised up, and things which had grown old are being made
new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

This collect is found in both the Good Friday liturgy and the Easter Vigil, as well as in the ordination rites. It is also one of the concluding prayers in the version of the Stations of the Resurrection published by Forward Day by Day. Walking and praying the Stations of the Resurrection every day at noon has occasioned that this prayer has become a part of me this Eastertide. 

Many of you have remarked how you have found yourselves immersed, or re-immersed lately, in the language of Morning or Evening Prayer, or Compline—and how reassuring and renewing the old familiar prayers have been for you. A rebirth of sorts...

Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1961-1974, wrote that the Apostles “knew that in the Resurrection of Christ another world had come…The old world continued with its contradictions and sufferings, but by the Cross and Resurrection these very contradictions and sufferings could be transformed into things fruitful and creative wherein, by faith in the Crucified, the power of God might be found.”

Because of the Resurrection, the power of God can always be found. Things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new. 

Yours faithfully,
Callie