This collect will be prayed on the Sunday after our revival weekend. With urgency and expectation, it beseeches God to come among us in a way that is palpable —through grace and mercy. The Rev. Richard Schmidt has written a book of reflections on the collects. Here are his thoughts on this particular collect.
“Discordant noises fill our ears, voices that demand, judge, gripe, and bark. Sometimes the voices come from within us. We grow exhausted and cynical. Our sin, the thing that 'sorely hinders' us, is our preoccupation with the sounds of these voices. The business of the church matters only when we see the Lord in and through and beyond it. Where is God in all this busyness, we ask? God is there, in the middle of it, in the faces of one another. But sometimes we are too busy to look for him."¹
Lord, still our voices that you may stir our souls. “Let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us,” that we may pause amid the clamor and listen to you. “Here I am,” you will say, “where I have always been, in your midst, immersed in the clutter and commotion of your life. Be still, all of you, and listen to me.”