The Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Grant us, Lord our God, that we may honor You with all our mind, and love everyone in truth of heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

we may honor You with all our mind – What does it mean to honor God with our minds? First, we embrace what He reveals to us through Scripture and Tradition, through the Church, through our consciences, and through the many other ways in which He communicates with us daily. We learn to recognize Him when He reaches out to us, and we reach back. Second, we strive to know ever more about Him and His plan of salvation, delving into the beauty and wonder of our faith. Third, we must conform out minds to God's revelation and God's will. Fourth, we must use our minds to praise and thank God, acclaiming the awe of His being and the wonders of His works of love.

love everyone in truth of heart – We must truly love others from the heart. This does not mean simply having affection for our neighbors although affection is often part of love. It means willing the very best for them and then doing all we can to help them achieve that best. Love is an act of will that arises out of the depth of our being where we encounter God and His love for us. It is this divine love that flows into and through us that we strive to pass on to all those we meet.

The Collect for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to Your good pleasure, that in the name of Your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

direct our actions according to Your good pleasure – To love God means to embrace His will. We must always trust that God knows exactly what is best for us and that whatever He ordains or permits will be for our greater good. Our part is to cooperate and to obey, to make our decisions in conformity with God's will, to allow Him to call the shots in our lives.

in the name of Your beloved Son we may abound in good works – Whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we think we must unite to Jesus. We will abound in good works when we act in imitation of Jesus, or even better, in unity with His divine life.

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Almighty ever-living God, Who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of Your people and bestow Your peace on our times. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth – God is in control. In the worst of situations, in the darkest of days, in the midst of great sadness and pain and fear, God is in control. He governs all things. Nothing in heaven or on earth happens that He does not ordain or permit (and there is a difference between God's ordaining will and His permitting will). Yet He works all things for our good when we remain in His love and conform our wills to His.

mercifully hear the pleading of Your people – God always hears our pleas. Sometimes we may think He does not or that He ignores our prayers. Yet He always listens to us, and He always responds. He might not, of course, answer our prayers in the way we want Him to. God knows far better what we need than we do. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He will give us what is best for us in all circumstances. But He never discourages us from praying to Him, for through our prayers we grow closer and closer to our most merciful Lord and prepare our hearts to receive the mercies and the graces He showers upon us.

bestow Your peace on our times – “Peace I leave with you; My peace, I give you,” Jesus assures us. “Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). The peace that Jesus gives us in the rest we find in Him, joined to Him in the bonds of love, tucked away in His Sacred Heart, placing our lives firmly in His hands, trusting Him to care for us. This is the peace we find in our Lord.

The Collect for the Baptism of the Lord

Almighty ever-living God, Who, when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan and as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, solemnly declared Him Your beloved Son, grant that Your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to You. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan – We might wonder with John the Baptist why Jesus chose to receive a baptism of repentance, for He was sinless. Jesus told John (and us) that it was to fulfill all righteousness, to carry out the Father's perfect will and His perfect plan of salvation. Jesus knew that when He entered into the water, He would take our sins with Him. He prepared the water that would one day soon, after He had died on the cross and risen again, wash away those sins as our Lord filled us with His grace and with His very presence. Jesus also knew what the Father had in mind, how He would reveal His Son to the world as He came up out of the river.

as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him – This descent of the Holy Spirit both revealed Jesus' identity and marked Him for the mission He had come to accomplish. The Spirit came in the form of a dove to symbolize a new creation (as in the days of Noah) and to represent the peace that Jesus came to bring through the forgiveness of our sins and our entry into eternal life (which we begin to live now by God's grace and will experience fully in Heaven).

solemnly declared Him Your beloved Son – The Father's voice rang out over the waters of the Jordan, declaring that Jesus is His beloved Son. Imagine what you might have thought if you were standing on the riverbank that day. Would you have been frightened or awed or both? You might not have realized that you were witnessing a manifestation of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but perhaps your heart would have told you that something your mind could not grasp had just appeared before your eyes.

Your children by adoption – In the new covenant initiated by Jesus Christ through His passion, death, and resurrection, we have become the children of God. We have been adopted as heirs into His covenant family, bound to Him by love. Our home is now His home: Heaven.

reborn of water and the Holy Spirit – When we are baptized in water, we receive the gift of sanctifying grace, the divine indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The power of God courses through us, making us a new creation in Christ, making us His for all eternity if we accept Him, cooperate with His grace, and embrace the eternal life He gives us.

may always be well pleasing to You – This should be one of our constant prayers to God: “Dear Lord, make me well pleasing to You. Give me Your grace, please. Pour it out in abundance. And help me to open my heart to receive it that it may change me and draw me ever closer to You. Amen.”

The Collect for Epiphany

May the splendor of Your majesty, O Lord, we pray, shed its light upon our hearts, that we may pass through the shadows of this world and reach the brightness of our eternal home. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

the splendor of Your majesty – Epiphany is a feast of light. We think about the star that showed the magi the way to the newborn Jesus. We reflect on how the gifts of the magi must have glimmered in the dim light of the stable. But our collect takes us to a whole new level of light by inviting us to ponder the splendor of God's majesty. Our God dwells in inexpressible light, beyond anything our human minds can conceive. Yet He shines His light on us, filling us with the splendor of His love by sending His Son to become Man, save us from our sins, and immerse us in His grace.

shed its light upon our hearts – Our hearts have been darkened by sin, dimmed by our faults, made gloomy and dreary by our anxiety and lack of trust. We must always pray that God forgive our sins, strengthen us in our weakness, support us in our misery, and illuminate our hearts that we may see the way to Him just as the star of Bethlehem guided the magi to Jesus lying in the manger.

we may pass through the shadows of this world – This world often seems like a dark, shadowy place, filled with fear and suffering, controlled by those who desire power and wealth for their own sake, brimming with bad news. Indeed, we live in a fallen world, and we must travel through its shadows by the light in our own hearts, which have been filled with God's grace and love. We are called to let God's light shine through us and to illuminate the world with faith, hope, and love.

reach the brightness of our eternal home – Are we ready to step out of the shadowlands (as C.S. Lewis once called this world) into the light of Heaven? Are we training our spiritual eyes to endure more and more of God's splendor so that we will be ready to see Him face to face when He calls us home?