The Collects of Veit Dietrich

Veit Dietrich was a younger associate of Martin Luther, sometimes serving as Luther’s secretary in the Table Talk and in some of the notes connected with Luther’s translation of the Bible. Dietrich was one of many theologians in the early Reformation who wrote volumes to educate both laity and clergy. He wrote a book Summaria Christlicher Lehr (1548) which was a devotional commentary on the Sunday lessons in the Historic Lectionary. After the summaries of the lessons for a certain day, he had a prayer based on the Gospel for the day. These prayers or collects were similar to the classic collects (now often called the ‘prayer of the day’ which is read before the lessons) only they were longer, more meditative, somewhat didactic (‘teachy’), and more closely connected to the thematic content of the Gospel.

Veit Dietrich’s collects appeared in English translation in The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) and in slightly updated English in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996). There were a few prayers in Summaria… that did not appear in either book. They have been newly translated for this work.

The Collects of Veit Dietrich in Contemporary English, prepared for A Collection of Prayers is available here: Veit Dietrich Collects CE. The pdf now has a cross-reference thematic use with the Christian Worship Lectionary (1993).

And also at Academia.edu here: https://www.academia.edu/27888007/The_Collects_of_Veit_Dietrich