Give us patience and courage never to lose hope

Give us patience and courage never to lose hope

Today is The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, ten weeks into the main block of Ordinary Time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. In the great Seasons, Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter, we focus on the key Christian events. In Ordinary Time we explore the richness of Christ and Christianity in all their aspects. And today, I think this Collect touches on one of the most important aspects — hope.

But what is this hope, the Christian hope, we’re praying that we’ll never lose?

Christian hope doesn’t mean living in the clouds while we dream of a better life. It isn’t just a projection of what we would like to be, or what we’d like to do. Because of the identity of our God, and because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Christian hope leads us to discover seeds of a new world already present today. It’s a source of energy to live differently, not according to the values of a society based on the thirst for possession and competition.

Hoping means first of all discovering in the depths of the present a life that leads forward and that nothing is able to stop. It also means welcoming this life by a “yes” spoken by our whole being. As we embark on this life, we’re lead to create signs of a different future here and now, in the midst of the difficulties of the world, seeds of renewal that will bear fruit when the time comes.

In the face of an ever more sceptical secular society it will take patience and courage to truly live that life, to truly live the Christian hope. Patience to wait for the seeds of renewal to appear and to germinate. And courage to live differently, and opt out of the thirst for possessions. But that is, I believe, where our true calling as Christians leads us — to live the Christian hope in today’s world.

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Tenth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council