Rector’s Note: A Collection of Confirmation Collects-5.7.26

Spring seems to be sacrament season – Eucharists, Confirmations, weddings, ordinations – all tucked around Easter and Pentecost. Add in graduations and Mothers’ Day, and if we had a cake for everything we celebrate this time of year, we’d be in sugar shock!

Last week, Bob Hartung and I joined our eight Confirmands and their families as they received the sacrament at St. Thomas in Whitemarsh. The church graciously allowed us to crash their service and bishop’s visit to allow our kids to receive the sacrament nearby. We are immensely grateful to St. Thomas for their kind hospitality.

This Sunday, with everyone back, we are going to celebrate our new Confirmed youths St. Peter’s style – by having them read the readings, lead the intercessions, serve as acolytes and assist with the sermon. They will be sharing some of the things they learned in class and demonstrating an act of faith that they picked up there as well.

They have a gift for you as well – a booklet of collects that they wrote during their classes. But don’t tell them, it’s a surprise!

A collect is a traditional prayer form that we use quite a bit in the Episcopal Church. It’s so called because it collects the intentions of the people gathered. You’ll find an entire section devoted to them, both traditional and contemporary, on pages 159 to 261 of the Book of Common Prayer.  There is a different collect for each Sunday of the year; those are called Propers. And we have them for special occasions as well, such as confirmations (see page 254).

Read several of them and you’ll begin to notice that they follow a pattern:

To: We address God

Who: We describe God

Do: We ask God to help us with something

So that: We ask that we be changed by what God does

Through: We acknowledge that God works through Jesus in unity with the Holy Spirit.

This year, our students ended each class by collectively writing a collect that captured what they learned in class that day and what they wanted God’s help with. It also allowed them to explore how we describe God, and to reflect more deeply on what should happen to us as a result of our prayer. We also noticed that while God answers prayers through Jesus in unity with the Holy Spirit, God also works through others, like Bishop Guttiérez or their fellow classmates.

As our months together progressed our students began to pack more and more into these prayers. They had a lot of things they wanted God to help them with, and they made room for a lot of changes in themselves as well.

Here’s a particularly lovely one that they wrote after a lesson on prayer as guided meditation:

O God, you are generous, soothing, and answer our prayers. You help us and are always there, assisting and listening. Bless us, guide us, provide for us, and  help us to believe in You. Help us to be comforted by our prayers so that we can help others feel comfortable and safe and so that we can be better people. Through Jesus and the rest of the Trinity. Amen.

 After the service this Sunday you’ll be able to pick up a copy of their booklet “Oh God Who” to discover what they learned about things like prayer, worship, the Bible, courageous action, and Confirmation itself.

Meanwhile, try your hand at writing a collect or two to prayerfully reflect on the ways God is speaking to you this Easter season. How do you describe God in your life right now? What do you seek from God? What do you hope will happen to you and to the wider world as a result? Who is God working through to reach you?

And what do you pack into your Amen?