Saturday in the Second Week of Lent

We explore the Collect of the Mass during Lent, focusing on the silence before it, its structure, and how our intentions unite with Christ’s sacrifice. We reflect on how this prayer forms our words, strengthens hope, and invites us to pray boldly in Jesus’ name.

• purpose of the Collect and its Trinitarian address
• role of the silent pause for personal intentions
• uniting our prayers with the sacrifice of Christ
• four-part structure: address, remembrance, petition, conclusion
• praying with memory to ask boldly today
• questions to deepen attention to the Collect
• closing prayers and Lenten resources

If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith this land, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our Lenten Reflection booklet, now available on Amazon.com
The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store
More information on the Cristeros can be found at the Cristeros.org

Transcript

What The Collect Is

Your Role In The Silence

Power Of Prayers United In Christ

Structure Of A Collect

Bold Petition And Jesus’ Name

Reflective Questions And Closing Prayers

Resources And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Saturday in the second week of Lent. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. 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. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. The collect. While usually quite short, the collect prayer of the Mass fulfills many purposes from the general instruction of the Roman Missal. Next, the priest calls upon the people to pray, and everybody, together with the priest, observes a brief silence so that they may become aware of being in God's presence and may call to mind their intentions. Then the priest pronounces the prayer usually called the collect, and through which the character of the celebration finds expression. By an ancient tradition of the church, the collect prayer is usually addressed to God the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and is concluded with a Trinitarian ending. It is in the moment of silence between Let us pray and the prayer itself that the assembled congregation is able to exercise their baptismal priesthood. By calling to mind their intentions in the presence of God, they bring their own hearts and sacrifices to the altar. These are then united to the prayer of the church as the priest prays the collect with outstretched hands, as he collects the prayers of the people and offers them to God, just as Moses did as he prayed for Israel, just as Christ did on the cross. Consider that all your prayers, all the prayers of the people, are united as one and given expression by the words of the sacred liturgy. Your prayers do not remain singular nor weak, but are made all the more powerful and true by their unification with the prayer and sacrifice of Christ Himself to the Father. In addition to this, like the introit, the collect helps us to understand the meaning of the particular Mass being celebrated. This helps us to form our own prayers as well, so that we, like infants learning to speak, can learn from our Holy Mother, the Church, what words and expressions are useful in Christian prayer. Knowing the structure of a collect can help to do this. There are generally four parts: an address, an anamnesis or remembrance of some work of God, a petition, and a conclusion. These elements of the collect are there to help form our prayer, and particularly to give us hope and courage, to pray today for what we know that God has accomplished in the past for his people. Since God does not change, he can certainly do today what he has done before, and so we make bold to ask him for a renewal of his wonders in our day and time, and in fact, right now. And of course we end the prayer in the name of Jesus, that our prayer be granted, according to John 14, 13. Do you remember to offer your own prayers along with the collect? Does this prayer usually go unnoticed? Is there a particular collect that has struck you, or that perhaps you might even use in your own prayer? All that I have and all that I am, I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith this land, consider joining the Cristuros and purchasing our Lenten Reflection booklet, now available on Amazon.com. The Christuros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Christuras can be found at the Christuros.org.