The Collects Are Back

What is a collect?

It is a brief prayer with a particular structure that gathers the intentions of the community around the appointed Scripture readings for that Sunday.

What is its form or structure?

It’s made up of 5 parts.

These parts consist of:

• ​An Address
• ​An Acknowledgment
• ​A Petition
• ​An Aspiration
• ​A Pleading

(That said, not every collect has all 5 parts–some have 4; others just 3. But the 5 part structure is pretty normative.)

So what’s an example?

Taken straight from one of the collects that we’ll pray in Lent:

“Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

-Fifth Sunday in Lent

1. ​The Address (is always to God: in this case “Almighty God”)
2. ​The Acknowledgment (highlights an aspect about God’s character or human nature: “You alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners”)
3. ​The Petition (is our ask: “Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise”)
4. ​The Aspiration (is the “so that” or the reason for our ask: “that among the swift and varied changes of the world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found”)
5. ​The Pleading (The Trinitarian or Christological “mediating” conclusion: “through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns”)

Today’s collect:

“O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

-Proper 17

The form or structure of today’s collect

1. ​The Address: "O God"
2. ​The Acknowledgment: “because without you we are not able to please you”
3. ​The Petition: “mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts”
4. ​The Aspiration: no aspiration in this collect
5. ​The Pleading: “through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”