An easy, effective and prayerful way of doing
The Prayer of the Faithful
Modern-day Catholic parish liturgy is often criticised for being too “wordy”, not sufficiently prayerful, deficient in expressing a sense of mystery. Many of these criticisms can be met by including in the liturgy more time for silent prayer and contemplation. One way of doing this is by reducing the number of words in the Prayer of the Faithful and including an expanded time of prayerful silence after each petition has been announced.
Two examples of brief intentions with long pauses for prayer:
Reader: The
Pope is old and frail. We pray. (Pause
– at least 10 secs) Lord, hear
us. All: Lord hear our prayer.
John Smith is in hospital. We
pray Pause etc
The weather is hot and dry. We
pray Pause etc
Next Saturday is the Grand
Final. We pray Pause etc
Reader: We
pray for John Smith who is in hospital.
(Pause – at least 10 secs)
Lord, hear us. All: Lord, hear
our prayer
We pray
for the Pope who this week is planning to go to
We pray for the peace process in
N.B. Don’t mix the styles of expression in any one Liturgy: it spoils the rhythm.
I think you will find it much easier to compose petitions for the Prayer of the Faithful in this way. If attention is given to the pauses the whole exercise can become much more prayerful.
A further reason for this procedure: There is no need to tell God what to do. God surely knows. And each member of the congregation probably would often have his/her own ideas about what is best to happen.
By having silence all that is left open. The unifying, announced intention remains; the emphasis is on placing the situation before God in prayer, and God knows best. And as a result of the praying we might be inspired to do something better ourselves.
The story of the
miracle at Cana in
In the story Mary, the mother of Jesus, becomes aware of the situation at the wedding reception. She simply describes the situation in saying to Jesus: “They have no wine”. Note that she did not tell Jesus what to do; she did not even ask him to do something. A simple statement and no more!
But in the story she did have something else to say – this time to the waiters: “Do whatever he tells you”. They did, and a miracle happened.
Now what can we learn form this episode:
1. A good way to voice a prayer of petition, a petition in the Prayer of the Faithful, is simply to describe the situation. Full stop. There is no need for us to tell God what to do about it, or even to advise God, or even to say what we would like others to do about it. God is ever attentive and all-caring and does not need our advice.
2. It is for us, each one of us, to then discern in our quiet prayer, what Jesus might be telling us to do. After our prayer, our attention to the call of Jesus and our positive response to that call, miracles might happen.
It is a good idea to explain this change before introducing it into the Liturgy.
In the explanation
you might make use of the
In explaining the procedure, mention that the short periods of silence after each petition is announced might lead one to feel uncomfortable at first. The reader also might feel pressured to limit the period of silence and come in too quickly with the “Lord, hear us.” Suggest to the readers that they practise beforehand, perhaps using a watch to give at least 10 seconds silence before the “Lord, have mercy”. (At first it will seem like a l o n g time). Because the wording of the intentions is usually very brief it is very important that the reader announce them clearly and distinctly and slowly.
A Sample Prayer of
the Faithful
Leader: Praying together and praying for each other is valuable and important. That is what we do now, in silent prayer. (20 seconds silence)
Reader: The future of our community is uncertain. We pray. (10 secs) Lord, hear us.
Australian soldiers are
returning from
There is a decreasing number of priests in the diocese. We pray ..... Lord,
Our friend, Margaret, died last week. We pray.................................Lord, hear us
Leader: God of all goodness, hear our prayer and grant what is best for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In response to this article on the Prayer of the Faithful, which was first published in the March 2000 issue of NACP, some NACP Network members found the simplicity of the approach very attractive. No longer need they worry about how to formulate detailed petitions. Another said that the petitions were so brief that people might not pick them up. And another made the point that it is appropriate enough to specify in the petition the good things we hope to do in regard to the petition, with God’s help.
Without complicating
matters it is possible and still very easy to add another phrase to the brief
statements about areas of concern. On a particular Sunday the same introductory
phrase could be added to each of the statements of concern. For example, during
Lent the statements might be phrased like this:
In this
time of Lent we pray for the people affected by the flood disaster in
In this
time of Lent we pray for...
In this
time of Lent we pray for...
Etc.
During the Easter period:
In this
time of Easter and New Life we pray for...
Etc.
Including the introductory phrase in each petition also makes it easier for the congregation to tune into the voice of the reader and understand clearly the petition when the reading of it is complete.