Today's Collect was preserved for us for many years on a scroll written in the eighth century. It is narrow but, when fully opened out, it is some four yards long, containing forty prayers. It is now kept in Geneva, but for some of its long life it was in Ravenna, though it was not originally written there. Still, it is known as the Rotulus (i.e. scroll) of Ravenna.
The prayers that it contains belong to the seasons of Advent and Christmas. They do not look on Advent as a penitential season, but rather as a time of joyous expectation. Today's Collect speaks of 'glad rejoicing' and the 'joys' of our salvation. It was a suitable choice for Gaudete Sunday, and is the only prayer from the Rotulus that occurs on a Sunday.
We can detect a similar serenity in last Wednesday's Collect, also from the Rotulus, in which we prayed that 'no infirmity may weary us, as we long for the comforting presence of our heavenly physician'. This brings into my mind a picture of the whole Church in an enormous waiting room at a doctor's surgery, with the patients keeping each other's spirits up as they await their turn.
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