Joyful Service

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee: that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance; that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. - Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Divine Worship: The Missal.

‘Out of our confidence in God’s good providence arises our joy in the work he has given us to do. There is in fact no happiness in human life quite like that of feeling that we are doing the one thing God wants us to do. We feel that we are “in tune with the infinite”, that we are working in harmony with a universe which at the roots of its being, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, is essentially rational. There is a good purpose in existence, and we are working to bring it out.
 
Thus we are bold enough to think that all history is organised for the Church and for the accomplishment of its proper ends. We may suffer many disappointments and temporary setbacks but the ultimate denouement is secure. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom”. “Ye shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel”.
 
The joy that this thought brings is not effervescent or easily dissipated. It is consonant with all godly quietness, that is, not a slothful lethargy, but an interior activity that preserves a perfect calm because it rests upon God.
 
…God’s governance of the world enables us to preserve that attitude of calm activity in perpetuity. We have lots to do, but we do it without fret or fuss, because we are really glad to be doing it and because we know that the issue is safe in the hands of God’.

​from Reflections on the Collects, 1964
​by William Wand KCVO, 1885-1977 (Bishop of London 1945-1955)