Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Before 1662, the Book of Common Prayer did not include special collects for the weekdays of Holy Week. The collect for Palm Sunday was used throughout the week. This collect first appeared in the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The references to being whipped and spit upon point our attention forward to the events following Jesus’ arrest. The collects for Tuesday and Wednesday seem to be reflections on the passion. They connect Jesus’ suffering with our own.

I’m tempted to see a “modern” turn in this development; modern in the sense of modern individualism and emotionalism.