At the Roman Station Masses, after the litany of prayers had been sung during the procession, and the Gloria, the Pope offered the liturgical greeting and, now that the people were collected or gathered together in the Church, he extended his hands in the ancient attitude of public prayer, chanted a terse, elegant summary oration, concluding with the invocation of the Holy Trinity.

This prayer is still known as the Collect. Some of the most ancient Collects composed by Pope Damasus I with their stately Roman dignity, still form part of the missal that we use today, and we continue to end the prayer with an expression of confident trust in the Holy Trinity.

The ancient relationship between the Collect and the litany is preserved with the chanting of the Kyrie eleison. We can take this as a reminder to bring to the Mass our own intentions, pleading to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to have mercy on us, and hear our prayers. In the Mass we give due place to the praise and adoration of God as in the Gloria, but we also come as humble suppliants, each of us bringing the worries and concerns of our own lives and those of the whole world.