The Collect ('kä-lekt)

[The following is a "newsletter article" I was assigned to write last month in my Liturgics class... I think there are a lot of Lutherans who are unfamiliar with the roots of our traditional worship, why we do what we do. Honestly, aside from knowing that a collect was a short prayer, I couldn't have explained how it fits into the Lutheran liturgy until coming to the seminary! Also, if you'd like to find out more about "what happens" at an LCMS Lutheran church (or you're just curious), check out this very nice, user-friendly website belonging to an Indiana congregation not too far from Chicago.] 

Most Lutherans have encountered the liturgical term collect (with the seemingly stilted pronunciation) in an order of worship bulletin or in the Lutheran Service Book (LSB) service settings. I recall a seminary classmate asking our professor “Why is it pronounced KAH-lekt and not kah-LEKT?” The former English teacher in me knew the answer right away (and, of course, I will tell you, so read on…).

Like all parts of the Lutheran worship service, the form and function of the collect stretches back to at least the late 5^th century in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a beautiful, but short prayer expressing praise or thanks directed to God, typically consisting of five parts: an address to God; a relative or participle clause referring to some attribute of God, or to one of his saving acts; the petition; the reason for which we ask; the conclusion. The following is an example:

Almighty and gracious Lord, pour out Your Holy Spirit on Your faithful

people. Keep us steadfast in Your grace and truth, protect and deliver us

in times of temptation, defend us against all enemies, and grant to Your

Church Your saving peace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who

lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Our two-part Word and Sacrament service is comprised of five segments (not unlike the typical collect) that follow the preparatory trinitary Invocation: Entrance Rite, Liturgy of the Word, Preparation for Divine Service, Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, and Distribution. The Collect of the Day traditionally brings the first segment—the Entrance Rite (Confession and Absolution, Introit, Kyrie, Hymn of Praise, Collect)—to a close before the Old Testament reading, which begins the Liturgy of the Word. A Post-Communion Collect is prayed at the end of Distribution, before the familiar Aaronic Benediction (“the Lord bless you and keep you…”).

The collect is intentionally very concise; its name comes from the Latin for “gathered” or “bound together.” This prayer, usually addressed to God the Father, traditionally contains only one petition and reflects the “collected” needs of the church and is offered on behalf of the “collected” congregants. Some collects may express thanksgiving, but they still offer a petition. The emphasis is always on the role of Christ as intercessor or mediator.

Luther provided his own theory regarding the origin of the collect’s name in Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments (1525): “When the Hebrew language was still common among them, the apostles and the first Christians called the bread and wine, which they had gathered for observance of the sacrament, ‘mass,’ in Hebrew in accordance with Jewish custom. A part of it was consecrated for use in connection with the sacrament, the other was distributed among the servants of the congregation and the poor. For a long time afterwards this practice was also referred to as ‘collections’...Though the practice was discontinued, the word ‘collect’ still remains.”

Among the liturgical reforms made by Luther was the retention of Roman Catholic collects that had to be translated into German. A Collect of the Day was included in the traditional Lutheran Mass and most of these were loose translations of ones for certain days in the church year. Luther even wrote a few himself (the morning and evening prayers in the Small Catechism each contain one). Collects are also used in the morning and evening prayer offices (Matins and Vespers, LSB pp. 219-252); the standard morning prayer is the Collect for Grace, the standard evening prayer is the Collect for Peace.

So just why is it pronounced KAH-lekt and not kah-LEKT? There are nouns and verbs in English that have the same form, such as increase, discount, protest, advocate, and collect, that follow a general rule for correct pronunciation—if meant as a noun, the beginning syllable is stressed; if as a verb, the stress falls on the end syllable.

And don’t worry about a pronunciation error. If your prayer is sent collect (verb), be certain that God will accept it (and the charges, as well)!