The first fold (line) of a collect is naming who is being addressed.
On the surface, this is obvious. In prayer, we are naming and praying to God the Divine. But what happens when we start to pull on that string a little bit?
Naming is an invitation to look around, under and over the longing to understand who and what is needed.
It’s a rather audacious act to give God a name. Hagar was the first recorded instance of God being named and perhaps the only instance in the Hebrew Bible of an individual (male or female) to give God a descriptive name. Hagar called God the God who sees.
Naming serves a variety of purposes.
Names orient. (Street names, county names, state names, country names.)
Names inform. (association, title, education, culture)
Names describe. (color, character, location)
Names define. (given name, family name)
Some traditional names in collects:
Almighty God.
Eternal Father
Father
Lord Christ
Some Modern ideas:
Enfolder
God of promises *1
Jesus our intuitive brother *
God of the barley loaf, God of the boy, God of the fish*
O God of empty places **2
Sheep-loving, shepherd God of ancient songs and rhymes **
Tenacious shepherd **
O Great stone **
Make a list of 5 names of God..traditional or “alternative” (there is no right or wrong) that you might want to use in your own collect.
Prayer, like poetry-like breath, like our own names-has a fundamental rhythm in our bodies. It changes, it adapts, it varies from the canon, it sings, it swears, it is syncopated by the rhythm underneath the rhyme, the name underneath the name, the welcome underneath the welcome, the prayer beneath the prayer.
-Pádraig Ó Tuama
*Examples of Fold 1 from Daily Prayers with the Corrymella Community by Padraig O Tuama
** Example fo Fold 1 from Alternative Collects: Prayers to a Disruptive and Compassionate God by Graham Turner