The Collect
The Collect is a prayer. In fact, it is an ancient form of prayer. Essentially, it is a public prayer, prayed by and for the assembled group. The Opening Prayer of the modern-day Eucharist is a Collect. The Collect has a clear structure. It is short, to the point, and captures the focus of where one is at a particular time or within a particular context.
“A Collect cannot be too long… it needs to make life recognizable. It is like a dialogue; you can never say everything, and your words are bound to fail, otherwise, the Collect will say nothing. A Collect can speak from the particular, which may have a wider audience and meaning. The listener or reader has their own ability to discern, interpret, and translate” (O’Tuama, p. xxi). It can be a rich way for an individual to name a need and where/how that desire might be fulfilled. It is in the working within the structure of the Collect that one might really explore one’s own relationship with the world and with God.
The Collect has clear elements. First, is the address to the one to whom you pray and the third is asking for something. The Collect doesn’t stop there, it is elegant and invites you to say a bit more. It is asking you why are you praying to “?” and what is it that you really want. What is the heart of this desire you are talking about? (O’Tuama, p. xxi, Being Here, 2024) The final part is a doxology, an ending, a word of praise. This final part is hard. In the Mass you often get, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.” You hear it so often it can feel like a cliché. Some call this part of the Collect the “Termination.” The Collect is a form where it names what the writer hopes the future might unfold, has within it a small moment of pause, a humble recognition.
Let’s look at the Collect and its five specific elements:
1. The Collect begins with an address to God or the one you are praying to.
2. The Collect includes an attributive phrase that says something about God or the one praying to. This forms the basis for the petition, focusing on characteristics and saying more about the one you are praying to. Use adjectives here.
3. The Collect has one or more petitions where you ask for something, articulating the desire you have.
4. The Collect adds some result or benefit that is desired as a result of the petition, saying more about that desire or the thing being petitioned.
5. The Collect closes with a doxology, an expression of praise to God. An example is the “Glory Be”: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” The doxology/termination is the ending of the prayer, a sense of praise to God or to the one you are praying to, possibly ending with “Amen.”