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Holy Catechism
Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893
Of the Great Collect
In peace let us beseech the Lord.
The Deacon next takes up the divine office, or it may be the Priest; and first urges all in common with peace to beseech God and to pray; forasmuch as peace is the sign which Christ requires from us all. “Hereby shall all know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (S. John xiii. 35.) Certainly, if any Christian bethink himself, at the hour of the divine and holy Liturgy, that he has enmity against any other, he ought, forsaking every concern, to go at once to find him, and be reconciled to him, and be at peace: otherwise the Liturgy will be of no avail to him. “If thou be offering thy gift at the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” The words are Christ’s. (S. Matt. v. 23.)
In peace let us beseech the Lord.
Peace, Isidore of Pelusium (Epist. Bk. 1) considers to be not only that which we ought to have amongst ourselves, but also the inseparable union with our Lord and Master Himself. “Peace Thou didst grant us, O Lord, even concord among ourselves; but give us peace, even the indivisible union with Thee, that being at peace by Thy Spirit, we may be inseparable from Thy love:” and this is the meaning of what the Deacon next adds, For the peace which is from above. “Because love is of God; and we love Him, because He first loved us.” (1 S. John iv. 7, 19.) For the peace which is from above, and for God’s love to man, we read in the Lord’s Brother.
This prayer is called the Great Collect (Συναπτή), so named from συνάπτειν to fit together, which means to unite many things in one: since therein the celebrant beseeches for the whole world, for the holy churches of God, for the High Priest and all the clergy, for the king, and the army, for the fruits of the earth, for favourable seasons, for health to the sick, for protection to those at sea, for liberty to the captives, and so forth.
Referring to this, Chrysostom (De Sacerdotio, c. vi.) said: “One who pleads for the whole city, nay, why do I say city? rather all the world, and prays God to be propitious to the sins of all, what sort of man should he be?”
I said the Great Collect in distinction from the Little Collect, which is, Still and still in peace. The Collects are called also Words of Peace, since they begin with the Peace; also Words of the Deacon, since they are peculiar to the Deacons; also Supplication, since they end with the word, Let us supplicate, meaning, Let us entreat. And the people answer, Lord, have mercy.
Help, save, have mercy, and preserve us, O God, by Thy grace.
These three expressions, forasmuch as the Church uses them very constantly, as well in the Liturgy as in every other service, appear to require some comment; and particularly as having regard to that valuable gift of grace, from the inexhaustible treasures of which we are helped, or aided, and saved, and find mercy, and are preserved, for which reasons the Church beseeches God; crying, Help, save, have mercy, preserve.
The cry, Help, suits the grace generally called Inviting; Save, the grace called Justifying; Preserve, the grace which follows after: Help suits the grace called Preventing; Save, the grace named Performing; Preserve, the grace called Glorifying. Whomsoever Thou invitest and preventest, these Thou aidest: Help. Whomsoever Thou empowerest and justifiest, these Thou savest: Save. Whomsoever Thou followest, and dost glorify, these Thou chasest not away, but these Thou preservest: Preserve.
Further, the Church says: Thou, O God of all, Who by Thy most general grace, whereby Thou wiliest all men to be saved, inviting us and preventing us, givest us aid. Thou, Who, by empowering and justifying us, savest us. Thou Who, by following up our salvation and glorifying us, rejectest us not, yea, rather preservest us for ever. The cry, Have mercy, is explanatory of Save: forasmuch as our salvation is altogether deduced from the infinite mercy of God. “And not of works in righteousness, which we did, but according to His mercy He saved us.” (Tit. iii. 5.)
52. Ex. I perceive you make reference to divers graces of God. I should like you, before we advance further, to describe to me the grace of God, what it is, and its various kinds, one by one.
C. What God’s grace is, and of how many kinds, we derive from Holy Scripture itself, and particularly from what the Apostle of the Gentiles, the great Paul, divinely taught for our enlightenment. And, in general, God’s grace is nothing else than “a quality granted to us by the Holy Ghost for salvation.” In a few words, as you perceive, the Doctors here include also the four causes, which generally concur in all things. The Efficient cause of Divine grace is the Holy Spirit. We men are the Material cause. The Specific cause is the quality given. The Final cause is salvation. And grace is spoken of in many ways. The most general and first kind is Inviting Grace, also termed Leading and Prompting Grace. “An Inspiration, to wit, stirred up in the human mind, in respect of which God draws man towards Himself, and moves him to works of salvation.” It is that which (2 Tim. i. 9) the great Paul thus describes: “According to the power of God Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace.”
The second kind is Co-operating Grace: “the gifts to wit by which God helps him that assents to His call.” S. Paul (Rom. viii. 26) says: “Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.”
Thirdly is grace inwardly working; which is described as being “what looks towards the thing caused, as it proceeds from God alone,” just as co-operating or concurring grace is the grace which looks to the accomplishment, “according as when God worketh in us, then we work with Him,” which is the fourth kind.
Both one and the other are included, agreeably to the blessed Paul, by Augustine, in his work on Freewill and Grace: “He at the beginning worketh in us, that we may have the will, who in the conclusion works with us when we have the will; wherefore the Apostle says: ‘I am confident that He which began in us a good work, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.’ Therefore, in order that we may have the will, He inwardly worketh without us; and after we have the will, and so will it, as to work, He inwardly worketh with us.”
The fifth kind is Preventive Grace, “which by influence worketh in us beforehand.” David (Ps. lix. 9, 10) says, “Thou, O God, art my helper; Thou art my God, Thy mercy shall prevent me.” On the other hand, Subsequent Grace is so called because it is “what by influence worketh in us afterwards.” This George the Metochite, in his translation, written in the Greek tongue, of the Theological Books of Aquinas, we know named Following Grace. And this is the sixth kind. David (Ps. xxiii. 6) says, “And Thy mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.” And in his book on Nature and Grace, the great Augustine thus describes both. “God prevents that we may be saved; and follows after that we may live with Him for ever.”
Seventhly comes Sufficient Grace, “by which man is able by good works to have a care of his own salvation, and to win it.” Paul (2 Cor. xii. 9) has: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” And Matthew (in ch. xxiii. 37): “How often would I have gathered thy children together; even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not?”
The eighth kind is Grace Effective, by which a man rightly using sufficient grace receives Salvation. So Augustine: “Beyond question, when we work, we ourselves work; howbeit, it is He Who makes us work, affording us most effectual strength, even He Who said (Ezek. xxxvi. 27), And I will cause that you shall walk in My ordinances, and keep My judgments, and do them.”
The ninth is Justifying Grace, which is “a gift freely given us, by which we are made worthy of blessedness, and are united with God so far as may be in the present life.” So Paul (Rom. iii. 24): “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus;” and Eph. i. 6: “Unto the praise of the glory of His grace, wherewith He endued us in the Beloved: in Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us.” And finally,
The tenth is Glorifying Grace, itself the final end of man, “by which we are made worthy of the personal vision of God, and partake without fail of the eternal good things;” and Divine Blessedness is simply the eternal view of God. “This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou didst send.” The Helper defines Blessedness as “A condition absolute with concurrence of all goods.” And S. Augustine says, “Blessed is he who hath whatsoever he wisheth (according to that saying, I shall be filled when Thy glory appears to me), and if he wisheth no evil.” (De Trin., xiii. ch. 8.)
Commemorating the All-holy Spotless Virgin.
The Deacon pursues the Diaconica; and first he commemorates the most holy Mother of God, and ever Virgin Mary, and all the Saints. First, for their glory and honour; secondly, that they may mediate with God on our behalf; thirdly, that we may imitate them, and partake of their sanctification; and finally, to stir us up to commend ourselves, that is each one himself, and to commend one another, that is each one his neighbour, (according to the precept to pray for each other), and all our life in the hands of the Lord God.
Forasmuch as to Him belong all glory, honour, and all worship, now and always and for ever, the Priest or the High Priest says the Exclamations, always also with a loud voice, as containing the Hymn and Praise of the Supersubstantial Trinity.