the divine salutation.  They mean that the priest who utters them is at peace with all clergy and people and thus wishes God to remain with them—­the highest and holiest of wishes.  For the presence of God, Who is the source of every good and the author of every best gift, is a certain pledge of divine protection and of that peace and consolation which the world cannot give.  This formula is used even in private recitation of the Office, as the priest prays in union with and in the name of the Church.

The words Et cum spiritu tuo add a new and further significance to the salutation; for it is the spirit, the human soul, that prays, and when the spirit prays in the name of the Church for her children, its work is a work of high spiritual order, demanding the use of all the soul’s powers,

Oremus. This exhortation is of very great antiquity, and in this form is found in the liturgies of St. James and of St. Mark.  In those days it was said by the priest in a loud voice.  The priest, the mediator, following the example of the great Mediator, Christ, calls others to join with him in prayer.  St. Augustine tells us, that sometimes after pronouncing the word Oremus, the priest paused for a while and the people prayed in silence, and then the priest “collected” the united prayers of the congregation and offered them to God, hence the name collect (St. Augustine, Epistle 107), (cf. Probst., Abendl Messe, p. 126).

Invocation and Conclusion.  Prayer is addressed generally to God the Father.  This practice is in accordance with the example and doctrine of Christ, “Father, I give Thee thanks” (St. John, xi, 41); “Amen, amen, I say to you; if you ask the Father anything in My name, he will give it to you” (St. John, xvi. 23).  “And He taught us to say ‘Our Father.’” In the early ages of the Church, seldom was prayer addressed to God, the Son.  Innocent III. tells us that the reason for the practice was a fear that such prayer might lead the catechumens, the Jews or the Pagans converted to Christianity, to allege or to believe that Christians worshipped several Gods.  However, with the advent of the early heresies, it became necessary to formulate prayers witnessing the divinity of Christ and His equality in all things to the Father and the Holy Ghost.  In some of the great prayers of the liturgy, the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are named to show their equality and unity of nature and substance.  Nearly all the prayers of this kind are the products of the Church during the storms of early heresy against the divinity, nature or personality of Christ.

The conclusions of the prayers generally contain the words Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, because all graces come through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Who pleads, as Mediator between God and Man, as He Himself has said, “No man cometh to the Father but by Me” (St. John, xiv. 6).

Hence, in every collect, we may distinguish five parts:  the invocation, the motive, the petition, the purpose, the conclusion.