Collects
/Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us - from this Sunday’s collect
I’m going to admit it - this is one of my most favorite collects in the prayer book. Stir up your power, O Lord! And with your great might show up among us! Use that infinite cosmic power of yours to change the things that need to be changed, to heal the things that need to be healed to make happen the things that need to happen! Come to our aid because just look at us. We are sorely hindered by our sins and can’t help but mess things up. We need your bountiful grace and mercy. Come to help us speedily in your triune amazingness!
Well, that’s a paraphrase.
So just what is a “collect” anyway? (pronounced COL’-lect) The “Collect for Purity” begins most Sunday services (Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid:…) And then there’s also the Collect assigned for that particular Sunday, which this Sunday begins with the words above.
“A collect is simply a prayer meant to gather the intentions of the people and the focus of worship into a succinct prayer. Most of the collects in the Book of Common Prayer more or less fit a pattern that was developed and some would say perfected by Archbishop Cranmer in the first Book of Common Prayer (1549).” - Anglican Compass.com
Oddly enough, this Sunday’s collect is one of the few that do not closely follow the usual formula, which might be why it’s one of my favorites. It just cries out with vulnerability to God for help, more like a psalm. But most of our weekly collects (which begin on page 211 in the Book of Common Prayer) follow a pretty clear formula. By learning that formula, you can create your own personal collect of the day. This is a fun practice for gathering your own intentions and faithfully focusing your day. Since the readings this Sunday all seem to be asking us to do something - to be awake and active - maybe learning how to write a collect would be one good Advent discipline to try.
A collect (usually) begins by addressing God with a descriptive name and noting one of God’s attributes. Examples:
Creator God, who fashioned the whole universe
Loving parent, who protects us from harm
Wise teacher, who shows us the way
How would you name God today? What attribute of God seems important to you today?
2. Offer a petition - request something from God. Examples:
Show me how to be more awake this season
Shower your love down on my friend who is suffering so much
Help us heal the divisions among us
What is on your heart to ask of God for yourself or another or for the world?
3. Add a “so that” statement - or a statement of vision about what you trust and hope that God will do. Examples:
So that I may feel the arrival of Christ in my heart today and every day
May she may feel in her bones the love you have for her
That there may be peace in our nation and in the whole world
What are your hopes in making this prayer?
4. Pray an amen in the name of God. Examples:
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen
In the name of the Creator, Sustainer and Holy Spirit, Amen.
In the Spirit’s power, Amen
Just four parts and you’ve got a genuine collect. Try it out - what’s your collect of the day today? And now that you know the usual form for a collect, you can see how this Sunday’s collect is unusual. This Sunday’s collect makes three petitions in a row, noting our own deep need, and then concludes with a formal trinitarian amen. Although it doesn’t follow the general pattern, it will certainly nonetheless focus our intentions and our worship as we begin the service this Sunday.
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
