Collect (2)
Collect is
(1) a church appointed as the startingpoint and place of assembly of a procession going to a station, as, for instance, the collect was at Santa Sabina, on the Aventine, when the station was fixed at the basilica of St. Paul;
(2) a prayer so called, because collected into one form out of many petitions, or from the people being joined in as one, or because offered for the whole collective Church, or a particular Church. Most collects end "through Jesus Christ," because the Father bestows his gifts through the mediation of Christ only. The five parts of a collect are the invocation; the reason on which the petition is founded; the petition itself; the benefit
⇒Bible concordance for COLLECTION.
hoped for; and ascription of praise, or mention of the Lord Jesus, or both. The collects in the mass were composed by pope Gelasius. At St. Albans, in the 12th century, they were limited to seven. The collects were included in the Collectarium, and the collects at the end of the communion service, matins, and even-song, etc., fulfil the definition of micrologus, as the concluding prayer in an office, in which the priest gathers up and collects all the prayers of the people, to offer them to God. Out of the eighty-three used inn the English Church, fifty-nine are traceable to the 6th century.
