After singing the Nunc Dimittis, the Church confesses that the Eucharist is the Lord’s gracious gift and responds in thanksgiving using the words of Psalm 107:1, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.” This verse introduces the Post-Communion Collect, a prayer in which we give thanks for the gifts received in the Sacrament and ask for the continued blessings which our Lord promises to give through the Sacrament. The first option for a Post-Communion Collect in the Lutheran Service Book was composed by Martin Luther for the Deutsche Messe (1526). In this prayer, Luther notes that the Sacrament brings salvation, which stands in stark contrast to the Roman Catholic teaching that the Eucharist is a sacrifice that we offer to God. He also emphasizes the proper relationship of faith and works—that as the Sacrament refreshes our faith, so also it strengthens us for love and service of our neighbor. This prayer was the most common Post-Communion Collect found in church orders after the Reformation and remains popular today.
The second Post-Communion Collect in the LSB calls upon God the Father as “the fountain and source of all goodness” (p. 201). We confess in the Creed that the Father is the creator and sustainer of all things, and here in this prayer we acknowledge that the greatest gift He has given us is His only-begotten Son, born in the flesh to redeem us from our sins. In this collect, we give thanks for the “pardon and peace” which we receive in the Lord’s Supper and we ask that the Holy Spirit would always rule our hearts and minds so that we are enabled to serve God in all that we say and do. With its emphasis on forgiveness, this collect is especially appropriate during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent.
The third collect in the LSB recalls the language of the Eucharistic Prayer, calling the Lord’s Supper a “foretaste of the feast to come” (p. 166). The emphasis of this prayer is eschatological as we ask that our heavenly Father would keep us steadfast in the one true faith until that day when we join with all the saints to “celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end.” This collect refers to our earthly life as a pilgrimage, recalling Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, which is the Old Testament picture of the life of the Church as God rescues us out of the slavery of sin and death and brings us to everlasting life. This prayer is closely tied to the seasons of Christmas and Easter as we celebrate the central acts of God to bring us salvation.