Encore Post: Today we will look at the Collect of the Day, the prayer which, “collects” the thoughts of the day’s readings and succinctly summarizes them in prayer form and continues pointing us toward the theme of the whole day. Now, there are other “Collects” that we say in other services. Sometimes you might read in the service of Matins the “Collect for the Word” or something else, but they all follow a typical pattern. The pattern is this: There is an address to God, recalling His character or action in the world on our behalf. Then we make our request known to God. Then we close the prayer typically in this fashion, “through Jesus Christ, Your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.”
If you are a parishioner, you probably do not see the “Collect of the Day” unless you are in a congregation which prints it in the bulletin. In past hymnals, you could find each collect printed next to the appropriate readings for the day. The Collect like the readings for each day of the church year should be understood as a proper. By that I mean to say that it changes each Sunday. Remember, in the divine service there are ordinaries and there are propers.
The Collect of the Day as I said earlier should help tune our ears to hear what we just prayed for in the upcoming readings. So we pray this prayer with great anticipation waiting to hear from Christ’s own Word concerning the fulfillment of what we just prayed. May you take a moment in worship to truly hear and listen to the Collect of the Day this Sunday and always.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana
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one year our Sunday school students made a book of collects, and we would study in advance the scriptures and collects, it seeved for us all the importance of focusing on the service instead of being distracted..
That is very cool! Sorry that it took so long for me to respond! I have just gotten back from a little vacation to visit my family in Indiana. Yeah, the collects assist us in getting to the heart of the particular Sunday.
I was a little nervous for a minute until I realized this isn’t the 1 year lectionary. 😂
Ha! Sorry I did not respond to this immediately. For some reason, the notification of your comment went into my spam folder. Yes, at the time I was not utilizing the Historic Lectionary. I should probably put something together about that!