Opening Prayer or Collect
Anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name. Ask and you will receive (Jn 16:23‑24).
* * *
According to the ancient plan of the Roman Mass, the Collect is the first prayer which is proper of the priest. Thus, it is one of the presidential prayers (the others are the Prayer over the Gifts and the Prayer after Communion). The introductory rites reach their apex in the Opening Prayer. It is not enough to have adored and praised God, and to have asked for mercy. We also need a concise formula that summarizes the petitions or intentions of the celebration.
* * *
The Opening Prayer is also called Collect because it sums up and gathers together all the intentions of the day’s sacrifice. Historically, this title recalls the old custom of Rome where, about the fourth century, it was the practice for the whole community to gather in one church so that they might proceed with solemnity to the temple chosen for the celebration of the day’s Mass. In this second sense, the Collect is the prayer of the plebs collecta, the prayer of the assembled people.
* * *
“Let us pray,” the celebrant intones, asking the people to join him, for this is a public and collective prayer. In olden times, after this invitation the people were invited to kneel down (with the flectamus genua) and devote a few moments to private prayer. This ancient custom still survives in the rites of Holy Week (Good Friday).
Nowadays we stand and observe a brief silence to help us realize that we are in God’s presence and to call our petitions to mind.
The priest then says the Opening Prayer in the attitude called orans. This gesture is an entirely natural one in prayer and was in use among the Jews. Pagans prayed with their hands held above their heads, palms turned upwards, in the attitude of one who expects to receive a gift. As can be seen in the wall paintings of the catacombs, the Church had no objection to this universal gesture. Christians, however, changed the position of the hands, making the palms face each other “so as to resemble those of the Lord on the cross,” and at the same time lowering the arms, so as “not to raise up our hands ostentatiously,” as Tertullian says.
In general, we ask that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ our Lord; that God may free us from sin and bring us the joy that lasts for ever;[1] that he may give us freedom of spirit and health in mind and body to do His work on earth, that “unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours.”[2]
We may also ask for our personal needs, material and spiritual. However, at this moment, we should go beyond our personal concerns and ask for as many crowns as those who enter the combat of Christian life. Our prayer to God the Father will then be not merely an individual petition but an expression and fulfillment of the unity of the faithful gathered through Christ in the Holy Spirit. We ask God to watch over his chosen family; to give undying life to all who have been born again in baptism, “O God, who by the abundance of your grace give increase to the peoples who believe in you, look with favour on those you have chosen and clothe with blessed immortality those reborn through the Sacrament of Baptism.”[3] Or we ask, “O God, … sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.“[4]
Structure of the Opening Prayer
The Opening Prayer always begins with an invocation to God. It is followed either by a statement of the grounds on which our confidence that our prayer will be granted is based, or by a reference (evocation) to the mystery or feast being celebrated. Then the petition follows, which expounds to a greater or lesser degree upon the subject of the request being made. Then comes the conclusion, which is invariably based upon a request for the intercession of our sole Mediator, Jesus Christ our Lord, and upon homage to the indivisible Trinity.
Here is an example showing us the elements and structure of the Opening Prayer:
Invocation: O God,
Grounds: strength of those who hope in you, and since without you mortal frailty can do nothing
Petition: graciously hear our pleas; grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds
Conclusion: Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.[5]
Or take this other example, this time of an Opening Prayer inspired by the mystery being commemorated:
Invocation: O God,
Evocation: who have made this most sacred night radiant with the splendour of the true Light,
Petition: grant, we pray, that we who have known the mysteries of his light on earth may also delight in his gladness in heaven.
Conclusion: Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.[6]
On the feasts of our Blessed Mother, the angels, and the saints, it is customary to invoke their intercession in the Collect.[7] There is often a reference to some title which is proper to them or to some virtue they lived in an exemplary way. Thus we ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin in the beautiful Opening Prayer of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception:
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
* * *
In spite of the variety of formulas, we always ask for the same thing: what is essential in our Christian life. Besides, there are not too many words in the vocabulary of persons in love. The result is that we may unconsciously sink into routine and shallowness, because of the brevity of the Collect. So that this does not happen, we must exert the effort needed to grasp the different nuances of each prayer and their supernatural dimension. We may be asking always for the same thing, but we should do it as if we are making each petition for the first time.
The Lord is true to his word: Whatever we ask of him will be granted, if it is good for our sanctity. He promised to hear our prayer. But when he told us, “Ask and it shall be given to you,” was he referring to what is essential or to unimportant things? Unwittingly, we may be basing our love for God on earthly benefits and forgetting about our personal sanctity.
It is now time to unite our minds and hearts with the supplication that the priest directs to God on behalf of all. We should do so with faith, without hesitation, as St James recommends to us: “One must ask in faith, one must not hesitate; one who hesitates is like a wave out at sea, driven to and fro by the wind; such a man must not hope to win any gift from the Lord” (Jas 1:6‑8).
The Amen
The Opening Prayer ends with the word “Amen.” We make the prayer our own and give our assent by this acclamation. Its translation could be: “Truly be so!” or “So be it!” or “Be it done so!” The Jews used it to agree on a contract and also to express a wish.
Amen is the last word of the New Testament: It closes the Revelation. Amen is truly the last word in all prayer. It is the last word, too, in holiness, which is man’s perfect adherence to the will of God. It is to say, “As you wish,” “My Lord and my God: into your hands I abandon the past and the present and the future, what is small and what is great, what amounts to a little and what amounts to a lot, things temporal and things eternal.”[8] I say Amen to all that you ask of me.
With that Amen, therefore, we acknowledge sincerely our total dependence on God. It is only fitting that we exert the effort to pronounce it decisively. In doing so, we will be happy to hear through the veil of our faith what the Lord told Moses: “This request, too, which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend” (Ex 33:17).
“We have this confidence in God: that he hears us whenever we ask for anything according to his will” (1 Jn 5:14).
Footnotes:
[1]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, see 14th week in Ordinary Time.
[2]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, 32th week Ordinary Time.
[3]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, Easter Saturday.
[4]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, Pentecost.
[5]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, 11th week Ordinary Time.
[6]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, December 25, Midnight Mass.
[7]We find in the Bible many instances of the special mediation of the Virgin Mary, subordinate to Christ’s: Jn 2:3‑5 ff. We also find many examples of the intercession of angels and holy men on behalf of others: in the Old Testament, Ex 32:11 ff; Tb 12:12 ff; 2 Mc 15:14 ff; Jb 5:1, 33:23, 42:8; Ps 99:6; Jer 15:1, 18:20,42:2; Ez 9:8; Dn 9:15‑19; Am 7:2, etc., and in the New Testament, Jn 4:47; Mt 15:22; Mk 9:16; Mt 5:44; Mk 8:22; Lk 4:38; Jas 5:16; Rom 15:30; 1 Thess 1:2; Acts 12:5; Phil 1:3; Col 1:9.
[8]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, The Way of the Cross, p. 68.
* * *
According to the ancient plan of the Roman Mass, the Collect is the first prayer which is proper of the priest. Thus, it is one of the presidential prayers (the others are the Prayer over the Gifts and the Prayer after Communion). The introductory rites reach their apex in the Opening Prayer. It is not enough to have adored and praised God, and to have asked for mercy. We also need a concise formula that summarizes the petitions or intentions of the celebration.
* * *
The Opening Prayer is also called Collect because it sums up and gathers together all the intentions of the day’s sacrifice. Historically, this title recalls the old custom of Rome where, about the fourth century, it was the practice for the whole community to gather in one church so that they might proceed with solemnity to the temple chosen for the celebration of the day’s Mass. In this second sense, the Collect is the prayer of the plebs collecta, the prayer of the assembled people.
* * *
“Let us pray,” the celebrant intones, asking the people to join him, for this is a public and collective prayer. In olden times, after this invitation the people were invited to kneel down (with the flectamus genua) and devote a few moments to private prayer. This ancient custom still survives in the rites of Holy Week (Good Friday).
Nowadays we stand and observe a brief silence to help us realize that we are in God’s presence and to call our petitions to mind.
The priest then says the Opening Prayer in the attitude called orans. This gesture is an entirely natural one in prayer and was in use among the Jews. Pagans prayed with their hands held above their heads, palms turned upwards, in the attitude of one who expects to receive a gift. As can be seen in the wall paintings of the catacombs, the Church had no objection to this universal gesture. Christians, however, changed the position of the hands, making the palms face each other “so as to resemble those of the Lord on the cross,” and at the same time lowering the arms, so as “not to raise up our hands ostentatiously,” as Tertullian says.
In general, we ask that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ our Lord; that God may free us from sin and bring us the joy that lasts for ever;[1] that he may give us freedom of spirit and health in mind and body to do His work on earth, that “unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours.”[2]
We may also ask for our personal needs, material and spiritual. However, at this moment, we should go beyond our personal concerns and ask for as many crowns as those who enter the combat of Christian life. Our prayer to God the Father will then be not merely an individual petition but an expression and fulfillment of the unity of the faithful gathered through Christ in the Holy Spirit. We ask God to watch over his chosen family; to give undying life to all who have been born again in baptism, “O God, who by the abundance of your grace give increase to the peoples who believe in you, look with favour on those you have chosen and clothe with blessed immortality those reborn through the Sacrament of Baptism.”[3] Or we ask, “O God, … sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.“[4]
Structure of the Opening Prayer
The Opening Prayer always begins with an invocation to God. It is followed either by a statement of the grounds on which our confidence that our prayer will be granted is based, or by a reference (evocation) to the mystery or feast being celebrated. Then the petition follows, which expounds to a greater or lesser degree upon the subject of the request being made. Then comes the conclusion, which is invariably based upon a request for the intercession of our sole Mediator, Jesus Christ our Lord, and upon homage to the indivisible Trinity.
Here is an example showing us the elements and structure of the Opening Prayer:
Invocation: O God,
Grounds: strength of those who hope in you, and since without you mortal frailty can do nothing
Petition: graciously hear our pleas; grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds
Conclusion: Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.[5]
Or take this other example, this time of an Opening Prayer inspired by the mystery being commemorated:
Invocation: O God,
Evocation: who have made this most sacred night radiant with the splendour of the true Light,
Petition: grant, we pray, that we who have known the mysteries of his light on earth may also delight in his gladness in heaven.
Conclusion: Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.[6]
On the feasts of our Blessed Mother, the angels, and the saints, it is customary to invoke their intercession in the Collect.[7] There is often a reference to some title which is proper to them or to some virtue they lived in an exemplary way. Thus we ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin in the beautiful Opening Prayer of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception:
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
* * *
In spite of the variety of formulas, we always ask for the same thing: what is essential in our Christian life. Besides, there are not too many words in the vocabulary of persons in love. The result is that we may unconsciously sink into routine and shallowness, because of the brevity of the Collect. So that this does not happen, we must exert the effort needed to grasp the different nuances of each prayer and their supernatural dimension. We may be asking always for the same thing, but we should do it as if we are making each petition for the first time.
The Lord is true to his word: Whatever we ask of him will be granted, if it is good for our sanctity. He promised to hear our prayer. But when he told us, “Ask and it shall be given to you,” was he referring to what is essential or to unimportant things? Unwittingly, we may be basing our love for God on earthly benefits and forgetting about our personal sanctity.
It is now time to unite our minds and hearts with the supplication that the priest directs to God on behalf of all. We should do so with faith, without hesitation, as St James recommends to us: “One must ask in faith, one must not hesitate; one who hesitates is like a wave out at sea, driven to and fro by the wind; such a man must not hope to win any gift from the Lord” (Jas 1:6‑8).
The Amen
The Opening Prayer ends with the word “Amen.” We make the prayer our own and give our assent by this acclamation. Its translation could be: “Truly be so!” or “So be it!” or “Be it done so!” The Jews used it to agree on a contract and also to express a wish.
Amen is the last word of the New Testament: It closes the Revelation. Amen is truly the last word in all prayer. It is the last word, too, in holiness, which is man’s perfect adherence to the will of God. It is to say, “As you wish,” “My Lord and my God: into your hands I abandon the past and the present and the future, what is small and what is great, what amounts to a little and what amounts to a lot, things temporal and things eternal.”[8] I say Amen to all that you ask of me.
With that Amen, therefore, we acknowledge sincerely our total dependence on God. It is only fitting that we exert the effort to pronounce it decisively. In doing so, we will be happy to hear through the veil of our faith what the Lord told Moses: “This request, too, which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend” (Ex 33:17).
“We have this confidence in God: that he hears us whenever we ask for anything according to his will” (1 Jn 5:14).
Footnotes:
[1]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, see 14th week in Ordinary Time.
[2]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, 32th week Ordinary Time.
[3]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, Easter Saturday.
[4]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, Pentecost.
[5]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, 11th week Ordinary Time.
[6]Roman Missal, Opening Prayer, December 25, Midnight Mass.
[7]We find in the Bible many instances of the special mediation of the Virgin Mary, subordinate to Christ’s: Jn 2:3‑5 ff. We also find many examples of the intercession of angels and holy men on behalf of others: in the Old Testament, Ex 32:11 ff; Tb 12:12 ff; 2 Mc 15:14 ff; Jb 5:1, 33:23, 42:8; Ps 99:6; Jer 15:1, 18:20,42:2; Ez 9:8; Dn 9:15‑19; Am 7:2, etc., and in the New Testament, Jn 4:47; Mt 15:22; Mk 9:16; Mt 5:44; Mk 8:22; Lk 4:38; Jas 5:16; Rom 15:30; 1 Thess 1:2; Acts 12:5; Phil 1:3; Col 1:9.
[8]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, The Way of the Cross, p. 68.