“I strongly recommend to priests that they observe this moment of silence, and do not rush through” Mass. This is Pope Francis’ suggestion for the prayer called the “Collect” which precedes the Mass readings. “Hold a moment of silence”, Pope Francis exhorted off the cuff, after the priest’s invitation – “Let us pray” – which “we may inadvertently overlook”. “Without this silence, we run the risk of neglecting the recollection of the soul”, the Pope warned, always speaking off the cuff. Before the opening prayer, “silence helps us to recollect ourselves, to reflect on why we are there”, the Pope said, stressing the “importance of listening to our hearts to open them to the Lord”. “Perhaps we are experiencing days of fatigue, joy, sorrow, and we want to tell the Lord, invoke His help, ask Him to be close to us”, Pope Francis suggested: “We have family and friends who are sick or going through hardships; we want to entrust the destiny of the Church and of the world to God”. “This is the very purpose of that brief silence, before the priest, gathering the intentions of each of us, prays, aloud to God and on behalf of all, the common prayer that concludes the introductory rites, by which he ‘collects’ our individual intentions”.