An Explanation of the Holy Mass
Collect
After the Gloria, the priest will say, “Let us pray.” That means we all should be praying. There is a short pause as we all pray. What should we be praying? Well, we have already paused to call to mind our sins, and we have just finished giving glory to God for his power, love, and mercy. Offer to God in that short time whatever is close to our hearts and ask Him for help.
The prayer that follows is called the Collect. It is called that because it collects all those prayers we just prayed, and offers them up to God. You will notice that the language is formal and poetic. In the Collect, we use words we normally don’t use in common speech. However, these words are addressed to God, so it is good that we are formal with him. It is good to use our best and most poetic form of speech when we pray. No, we are not going to be required to pray like this during our private prayer with God, but when we pray as a community, the words we use are designed to give honor to God.