The salutation is more than a simple greeting. When the pastor says, “The Lord be with you,” he is announcing that the Lord is truly present with His people to bless them through the Word which is about to be read. The salutation comes directly from Scripture. As but one example, when the angel Gabriel greets Mary, he says, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Gabriel is proclaiming the imminent presence of Jesus who would become incarnate to bring salvation to the world. In the liturgy, the salutation also occurs at the beginning of the Service of the Sacrament and before the benediction. In these instances, it also proclaims that the Lord is coming to His people with His blessing in specific ways. When the congregation responds, “And with your Spirit,” they acknowledge that God is working through the pastor to deliver His gifts.
The Collect of the Day is a brief prayer, chanted by the pastor on behalf of the people, that collects the prayers of the gathered faithful into one. The Collects were written anonymously and have been in use since at least the 5th century, with some being modified over time. The Collect is a Proper of the lectionary, appointed for a specific day or season of the Church year. It typically asks that God would bless the people in a specific way related to the theme of that day. The specific form used for Collects includes a basis for the petition that is made, so that we pray back to God what He has first spoken to us in His Word.
Following the Collect, we hear the Scripture lessons for the day—Old Testament, Gradual, Epistle, Alleluia and Verse (or Tract, during Lent), and Holy Gospel. The Church follows a lectionary which orders our life around the life of Christ and ensures that we hear the full counsel of God each year. Much of the one-year lectionary dates back to the 9th century or earlier, with some evidence as early as the 5th century, thus connecting the whole Church across time and space.
In the lessons, we hear the living voice of Christ as He speaks through the apostles (Epistle), prophets (Old Testament), evangelists (Gospel), and shepherds (sermon) to proclaim Law and Gospel to us for the forgiveness of sins and to equip us for Christian life (Ephesians 4:12). The Gradual and Verse are usually taken from the Psalms and put the language of faith on the lips of the congregation to reflect upon and respond to the three primary lessons. The reading of the Gospel is the first liturgical high point of the Divine Service. Through the proclamation of the Word, the Holy Spirit is active to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth and to keep us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (Small Catechism II.3).