In November and December I had the opportunity to teach my faith formation families about the prayers of the Mass. Learning about and writing our own collects was one of the activities. We used the image of the Sign of the Cross to talk about the four movements of the collect: upward, downward, inward, and outward. So each family wrote a collect in which they (1) called on God by name, (2) spoke of our relationship with God and who he is to us, (3) brought our requests to him, and (4) pledged to walk in faith and trust as a fruit of prayer.
I was inspired by this chapter to do with myself and my family what my wife does with her class before a school Mass: read the collect and take a time to decide on an intention to bring to mind when the celebrant prays it. This would be an easy in-the-car task on Sunday mornings for us.
In November and December I had the opportunity to teach my faith formation families about the prayers of the Mass. Learning about and writing our own collects was one of the activities. We used the image of the Sign of the Cross to talk about the four movements of the collect: upward, downward, inward, and outward. So each family wrote a collect in which they (1) called on God by name, (2) spoke of our relationship with God and who he is to us, (3) brought our requests to him, and (4) pledged to walk in faith and trust as a fruit of prayer.
I was inspired by this chapter to do with myself and my family what my wife does with her class before a school Mass: read the collect and take a time to decide on an intention to bring to mind when the celebrant prays it. This would be an easy in-the-car task on Sunday mornings for us.
I love this! Thanks so much for sharing, Jacob, this is an excellent idea!