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I have thought a great deal this last week about the treasury of prayer found in the collects of the Church. They do what most of us would like to do when we pray: address God, confident that He is listening, recalling some aspect of the life of Jesus and the Sacred Scriptures and relating those to a need that we have, and finally offering up the prayer in God's Name and to the Glory of the Holy Trinity. Below are 2 collects I treasure and pray often throughout the year, one for Palm Sunday and the other usually paired with Maundy Thursday in Holy Week and every Thursday each week of the year:
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O GOD, who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy passion: Grant us so to reverence the Holy Mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever know within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
O GOD, who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy passion: Grant us so to reverence the Holy Mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever know within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
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