Brush up your rubrics: collects

This post is just a reminder of rules around the way collects, the prayer used as part of the concluding section of the hours (aka the collect).

(1)  Where collect occurs

The collect is part of the concluding section of each of the day hours.  The table below show where it fits in the standard closing of each hour.

  

LATIN	ENGLISH
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison	Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy
Pater noster…	Our Father…
Domine, exaudi orationem meam Et clamor meus ad te veniat	O Lord hear my prayer And let my prayer come unto Thee
Oremus	Let us pray
INSERT  COLLECT HERE
[Sometimes at Lauds and/or Vespers: commemoration]
Domine, exaudi orationem meam Et clamor meus ad te veniat	O Lord hear my prayer And let my prayer come unto Thee
Benedicamus Domino Deo Gratias	Let us bless the Lord Thanks be to God
Fidelium animae… [omitted at Compline and replaced with blessing]	May the souls of the faithful departed……

(2) Where to find the collect

At Prime and Compline the collect is the same each day at those hours (a few very special days such as All Souls and the Sacred Triduum aside), and can be found in the psalter section of your Office book.

On fourth class Saturdays (Class IV), the collect for Matins, Lauds and Terce to None is from the Office of Our Lady on Saturday (note some monasteries also retain the older custom of starting the Office of Our Lady on Saturday at Friday Vespers).

At all the other hours, the collect will be of the week (the relevant Sunday of the year), day or feast, and so will normally be found in either the Proper of the Season or Proper of Saints (or Common if there isn't a proper prayer) section of the Diurnal.  

For most of the year the 'default' collect, used on days that are not feasts from Saturday Vespers (I Vespers of Sunday) to Friday Vespers is that of the Sunday of the year, and it is the same prayer that is said at (the EF) Mass.  During the more intensive times of the liturgical year, there may a collect (or even two) for each day of the week.

Page numbers for the collects to be used each week can be found in the Ordo.

The table below summarises the source of the collect for each hour.

HOUR	SOURCE OF COLLECT
Matins, Lauds, Terce-None	Sunday - Friday (or Saturday if Class III without a proper prayer): Of the Sunday (ie the week), day or feast Class IV Saturdays: Of the Office of Our Lady
Prime	Collect of Prime, Monastic Diurnal  (MD) and Antiphonale Monasticum (AM) pg 8 (Domine Deus omnipotens...)
Vespers	Sunday-Friday: Of the Sunday (ie the week), day or feast Saturdays: Of the coming Sunday
Compline	Collect of Compline, MD 264, AM 173 (Visita quaesumus Domine)

(3) The conclusions to the collects

Most of the time Office books do not write out the full conclusions to the collects, they just provide a few key words to remind you to use it, such as PER DOMINUM NOSTRUM, or THROUGH OUR LORD.

There are several different conclusions to the collects, indicated by slightly different key words.  You can find them written out in full in the Diurnal on page xxix.

Hope this helps...

Do let me know if anything is not clear, or you think I've made a mistake.