**PRAYER (LITURGY)** — Here the term "prayer" is taken in the precise sense it assumes in the liturgy: the prayer recited by the officiant (bishop or priest) as the interpreter before God of the sentiments of praise, supplication, and adoration common to all the faithful, directed to Him in their name.
Initially, these prayers were composed by the officiant himself (JUSTIN, *Apol.* 1, 67); but already in the early centuries, many well-composed ones were noted, collected, and repeated (e.g., *Didachē*, the Eucologion of Serapion, Roman Sacramentaries). Later, the prayer became specified in the four prayers of the Mass: the 1st, called the *Collect*, before the readings; the 2nd, at the Offertory of the gifts (*Super oblata, Secreta*); the 3rd, after Communion (*Postcommunio, Ad complendum*); the 4th, recited over the people (*Super populum*). Finally, the term "prayer" became especially restricted to the first, the prayer par excellence.
The specific characteristics of the prayer, especially in the *Collect*, are: 1) that it is a supplication, reserving praise and thanksgiving to the other Eucharistic prayers; this supplication is kept on a general level and never descends into excessive detail, and when mention is made of the intercession of the saints or of some mystery, it is solely to support our prayer; 2) a universal supplication: that is, a prayer of all and for all, for the good of the entire community; this is evident in the use of the subject "we" ("quasumus," "preces nostras"), and in the object ("ut... serviamus," "ut... vivere valeamus"); 3) a supplication that is absolutely spiritual in its requests; it always asks for spiritual and supernatural goods ("sic transeamus per bona temporalia, ut non amittamus aeterna" [3rd Sunday after Pentecost]).
According to a liturgical principle, all prayers are recited on commemorative or festive days of the Lord or of the Saints. The prayer can also be divided into two parts: prelude and theme, or invocation and petition, more or less extensively or briefly developed. The prelude includes the address with its expansion, that is, the foundation of our request; the theme contains the request itself (Prelude: *Deus qui nos in tantis periculis... non posse subditare*, theme: *da nobis... ut... vincamus*). The invocation can precede the petition or follow it (*Exciita... Largire...*). Other particular features of ancient classical prayers are the suitable arrangement of the various members, well-proportioned to one another and enriched with complements, parallelisms, and antitheses, and the euphony based on the eurhythmy of the clauses, whether incidental or final, on the harmonic succession of words and syllables, i.e., in the use of the *cursus*. Thus, the Roman Collects generally exhibit a character of sobriety and elegance.