i_.

(3) The petition, the body or centre or substance of the prayer, is
always noted for the solemn simplicity of language, which marks
liturgical prayer, e.g., _Multiplica_ super nos misericordiam tuam.

(4) The purpose is an enforcement of the petition. It has reference,
generally, to the need of the petitions and is marked usually with the
word _ut_. "Multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, _ut_ quae, nobis
agendis praecipis, te miserante adimplere possimus" (prayer for feast of
St. Patrick).

(5) The _conclusion_ varies, e.g., "Per Dominum nostrum," "Per eundem
Dominum," etc.

"Those who pay intelligent attention to the liturgical chant at High
Mass, and in particular to the chant of the celebrant, will be able to
discover for themselves that the intonations used in the singing of the
collect and the Post-Communion serve, as a rule, to mark off two at
least of the main divisions indicated. Two inflections, a greater and a
lesser, occur in the body of the prayer, the greater for the most part
coming at the close of the 'motive,' while the lessor concludes the
'petition' and produces the purpose of the prayer. When the prayers are
correctly printed, as in the authentic 'Missale Romanum,' the place of
the inflexions is indicated by a colon, 'punctum principals,' and a
semicolon, 'semi-punctum,' respectively. These steps, it will he
observed, indicate, not precisely 'breaks in the sense' (as Haberl
incorrectly says) but rather the logical divisions of the sentence,
which is not quite the same thing" (Father Lucas, S.J., _Holy Mass_,
chap, vi.).

The question is often asked, why _Dominus vobiscum_ is said after the
collect, or prayer. Writers on liturgy reply that it is so placed
because Christ frequently used the salutation _Pax vobis_, and the
priest in public prayer holds the place of Christ, and as he, the
priest, used this formula of salvation before the collect to obtain the
spirit of prayer and the grace of God, he repeats it so that these gifts
may be retained.

In the collects, the fatherland of the saints is rarely found, because
the saints' true home and fatherland is heaven, where they were born
again to life eternal, and their fatherland is not this valley of exile
where they spent their temporal life. Nor are their surnames given in
the collects (see the collect of St. Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantel
given on p. 180). But it is not infrequent in the collects to find
certain appellations characteri