Favourite Collects

St Alphonsus said somewhere that each of the votive orations in the Roman Missal was worth fifty Rosaries – meaning no doubt that their sublime concision and spiritual orientation made them models of what prayer ought be.

One aspect of the recent retranslation of the Mass into English was to provide memorable and worthy versions of the original Latin collects and so forth. For example, the prayer customarily said at the conclusion of the Angelus – Gratiam tuam quæsumus – is well-known in English in its older, pre-OF form – "Pour forth, we beseech thee" – while its old ICEL paraphrase was banal (I forebear to try readers' patience with a repetition of that which is best forgotten); the new translation (surprise, surprise) is a very slight modification of the traditional form (simply substituting "you" for "thee", "your" for "thy", and supplying the ending "Who lives and reigns..." in place of the old "Through the same...").

I personally prefer to say certain collects in Latin as part of my prayers, at morning and evening, before and after Mass, and at sundry times:

• Actiones nostras quæsumus
• Aufer a nobis
• Deus qui corda
• Deus cui omne cor
• Deus qui nobis
• Respice Domine super
• Agimus tibi gratias
• Visita quæsumus Domine
• Domine Deus omnipotens qui ad principium
• Corpus tuum Domine
• Perceptio Corporis (et Sanguinis) tui
• Domine Jesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi
• Concede quæsumus omnipotens Deus
• Concede nos famulos tuos
• Exaudi nos quæsumus

The list goes on... gentle reader, what collects have you committed to heart as part of your fund of prayers?

I will insert in the margin of this blog the collect for the election of a new Pope!