Dear Lenten Pilgrims,

At the start of the year I began using a book titled Being Here: Prayers for Justice, Curiosity, and Love by Padraig O’Tuama. He is an Irish poet, theologian, and conflict mediator whose writings have been very helpful in my spiritual practices. Being Here has been a beautiful part of my daily devotionals this year.

He begins with an introduction to a form of prayer called the collect (pronounced CAH-lect, rather than cuh-LECT), which is one of the most common types of prayer in Christian worship.

Here is a famous one, called “The Collect for Purity:”

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secretes are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name: through Christ our Lord. Amen.

O’Tuama says there is a basic five-fold structure to the collect.

A. Name the one you’re praying to

B. Unfold the name of the one you’re praying to

C. Name one desire

D. Unfold the desire you’ve named

E. End

You can see those five elements in the Collect for Purity:

A.  Almighty God,

B.  unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secretes are hid:

C.  cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit,

D.  that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name:

E.  through Christ our Lord. Amen.

To put it in even more basic terms, O’Tuama says the structure is:

A. Address

B. Say more

C. Ask one thing

D. Say more

E. Bird of Praise

I love his phrase “Bird of Praise.” It’s his way of describing the way we seal and offer the prayer up to God, releasing it by the power of the Holy Spirit for God’s use in us and throughout the world.

Here is another example. It is the Collect for Lent in our United Methodist Hymnal. See if you can identify the five elements:

O God our deliverer, you led your people of old through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide now the people of your church, that, following our Savior, we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

As part of your Lenten journey, I invite you to write a collect that is meaningful to you. Here is a simple one that I wrote:

God,                                                                                                                         

I know that you love me.                                                                                   

Help me to love myself,                                                                                     

That I may love others.                                                                                      

In Jesus name, Amen.

I led the staff in this exercise back in January, and invited them to write one. They each did a wonderful job. Here is a sample of what they came up with:

The One who summoned me, 

You are who laid out all the plans for my life 

Help me follow that plan, seeking You in every step at your pace and at your direction. 

Looking not at the landscape or the problems that loom, but only your face. 

I bless your Holy Name in this moment and forever.  

O holy God, who loves all without condition. 

Enable me to have patience at home and focus with work, so that I may better love my family and use my unique gifts to equip others. 

In the power and name of Jesus I pray, Amen. 

Creator of Hope,  

Source of light and security,  

Open my eyes to how much you love me:  

Help me to see where you are working in my life that I may be at peace to release my anxiety of all that is happening.  

In your steadfast strength, Amen 

I hope you find the form and beauty of the collect a helpful addition to your prayer practices.

And I would love to read any collects that you write!

Grace and Peace,