Q: I hope this is my last email to you about the Extended Vigil of Pentecost! This question pertains to the actual Extended Vigil of Pentecost and not the RCIA. In the extended form, 3b, it seems to say that you would do the Kyrie (which we are omitting because of the Reception of a Child to be baptized during the same Mass) and then it seems to have the priest move to one of the options for a Collect for the Vigil: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the splendor…
Then, after the Fourth reading and prayer said by the priest after the fourth reading, the Priest intones the Glory to God and then it says when the hymn is concluded (the Glory to God, I assume) the Priest says the Collect in the usual way: “Almighty ever-living God, who willed..” This is the other option for a Collect for the Vigil Mass. My question is, am I reading this correctly that the priest will essentially pray TWO Collects: one before the readings and one after the Glory to God? Thank you!
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A: You are reading 3b correctly. Both collects are used. The second comes before the Old Testament readings and the first comes after the Gloria. This is a small point, but I notice that the missal calls the one that precedes the readings a “prayer” rather than a “collect”. The collect performs a particular function in the liturgy. I think the idea is that even though you use both prayers, only one of them is precisely the collect of this particular mass.
If you want extra credit, you can learn about the origins of those two collects in my book, Pastoral Companion of the Roman Missal, which shows how the second one is especially appropriate when baptisms are being celebrated at this vigil.