Thoughts on the Divine Service
12. The Collect of the Day - Part 2

Dear friends,

Can the Collect of the Day teach us how to pray?

When I visit with people about their devotional lives, a common theme is that people are dissatisfied with how they pray. They want to be better at prayer, but they don’t know how. As I wrote last week, prayer is no little thing, but a mystery, an art and a discipline that is delightfully commanded by God and always under assault by the devil. Prayer is not an easy thing! In my own devotions this week, I happened upon Luther writing:

“Here the evil spirit hinders men with all his powers. Oh, how often will he prevent here the desire to pray, not allow us to find time or place, and even raise doubts over whether a man is worthy to ask anything of such a majesty as God, so confusing us that a man does not know himself whether he is really praying or not, whether it is possible that his prayer is acceptable, and other similar strange thoughts. For the evil spirit knows well enough how powerful one man’s truly believing prayer is, how it hurts him and benefits all men. Therefore, this evil spirit does not willingly let praying happen.” (Treatise on Good Works, AE 44:62)

Prayer in faith is a powerful thing. If you’d like to improve your prayers or you’re looking for help in forming your prayers, there’s excellent help in how the Collect of the Day is structured. Before we look at the structure, though, I want to emphasize again: Prayer begins with God’s Word—it begins with “Our Father who art in heaven” speaking to us. This may be some portion of Scripture that we read just before we pray, or biblical truth that we’ve learned along the way.

In the case of the Collect of the Day, the prayer is derived from the Scripture readings that we are about to hear; and a normal collect has a specific five-part pattern:
(1) The address: a name for God
(2) The rationale: the reason for our prayer, either something about God or something about us.
(3) The petition: what we ask for.
(4) The desired outcome: what we hope God’s answer to prayer will accomplish.
(5) The termination: the conclusion to the prayer.

Note that I say this is the pattern for a “normal” collect—as it turns out, the collects for Advent are among the few that don’t follow that pattern. To illustrate the structure, then, let’s use the Collect for Christmas Day. The gospel reading is always John 1:1-18 with the news that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us—Jesus took on flesh and blood to be our Savior. The Collect for Christmas Day reads like this:

(1) Most merciful God,
(2) You gave Your eternal Word to become incarnate of the pure Virgin.
(3) Grant Your people grace to put away fleshly lusts,
(4) that they may be ready for Your visitation;
(5) through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

  • The address is “Most merciful God,” because God mercifully send His Son to be our Savior.
  • The rationale—our reason for our request—is that the Word became flesh. Because the Word became flesh and redeemed us, we are confident that God hears our prayers and answers them.
  • The petition is that God would grant us grace to put away fleshly lusts. That’s a big ask! We are daily tempted to misuse our bodies, fearfully and wonderfully made by God; and with such sin, we distance ourselves from the grace that Jesus became flesh to win for us.
  • The desired outcome is that we be ready for the Lord’s visitation. This certainly refers to His return in glory, but it also refers to receiving the Lord’s Supper with repentant hearts.
  • The termination is a standard confession of praise: we make this petition because Jesus died for us and lives again, reigning as the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Do you see the structure of the collect, how it takes a passage from the Bible, mines its riches and prays it back to God? Once you do, it serves as a beautiful outline for your own prayers. It takes some practice, but it becomes a great tool for prayer. These can be prayers for concerns you encounter in life. For instance, if I am praying for a woman who is sick, simple five-fold prayer might be:

(1) Heavenly Father, (2) Your Son healed many on His way to the cross. (3) Hear our prayers for ____, grant her healing, and strengthen her faith to trust in You, (4) that she might fully recover and praise Your name; (5) through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I encourage you to make use of the five-fold collect in your private devotions: whatever Scripture you read on a given day, make it into a prayer and say it back to the Lord. In this way, you’re not just praying about those things that concern you, but also for things you weren’t thinking about until the Lord brought them up in His Word. When you read a passage of Scripture, examine it with the following questions:

(1) What is God called in the text? (And why?)
(2) What does God say about Himself and/or us in the text?
(3) What does God promise, or would He have me ask for?
(4) What does God wish to do for me?
The last part of the collect doesn’t call for a question, but a reminder:
(5) I should always remember that God hears my prayers because Jesus died for me.

For instance, on the day I’m writing this draft, I spent some time reviewing Psalm 8, especially verse 2: “Out of the mouths of babies and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” I didn’t plan to pray for babies today, but there it was in the psalm; and when the Lord speaks to us in His Word, faith delights to say it back to Him. So, after asking the questions above…

(1) Oh Lord, our Lord (Ps. 8:1),
(2) by Your grace we are born fearfully and wonderfully made, then born again in Holy Baptism, and so even infants with their coos and cries provide praise against the enemies of death and devil, for You have given them breath and life.
(3) Bless the infants and small children in our congregation, and preserve them in life and faith,
(4) that they might praise Your name for years to come;
(5) through Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

When I first heard a lecture on the structure of the Collect of the Day, I filed it away under “information I will never use again.” How wrong I was. Given the evil one’s constant distractions and my own penchant for daydreaming, the outline helps me to pray. I hope it likewise does for you. It takes practice, but it will help you both examine God’s Word more carefully and better pray it back to Him. In both of those activities, there is great blessing!

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