Do you "pray the mass" by actually praying along with the priest?

  • Thread starter Thread starter scriabin
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

scriabin

Guest
Do you unite yourself interiorly to the prayers or do you pray along silently or quietly under your breath?

Do you just follow along with the missal or actually read along with the prayers?
 
I don’t know Canon Law inside out, but I want to say I heard Jimmy Akin once say on CAL that a person should not “imitate” the priest. In the context I remember, he was talking about gestures (sometimes I see people imitate the priest when he lifts his hands and such).

That being said, I think your phrasing of “unite yourself interiorly to the prayers” sounds like a holy thing to do! 🙂
 
This may help…

“The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the sacrifice, dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day at the altar. If you wish to hear the Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart, and mouth all that happens at the altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens at the altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass.”

His Holiness Pope Pius X
 
…well I do inso far as I pray the prayers etc…quietly following him…afterall he is the shepherd of his flock…it prevents distraction and i find there is so many sublime points in the Mass which after much repitition I cannot tire of it…you find more and more to love
 
when i attend the TLM i usually dont even follow along in my missal. ive been studying what exactly it means to “participate” at Mass and ive come across an interesting book on the subject called Hidden Treasure Holy Mass by St. Leonard. though im not sure if his method is the best, it does provide an interesting view of what “participation” meant a few centuries ago. nowhere does it even mention anything about hand missals or the need to know the prayers that the priest/servers say, much less the need to recite them yourself. i think that the focus on the actual canon of the Mass is realtively recent.
 
The first couple of times I attended the TLM I did not pray the Mass, but rather Interiorly united myself to the Mass. By that I mean that I watched in order to reaquaint myself with the mass and and prayed as best I could.
Now that I am able to pray along I do that mostly (quietly).

James
 
scriabin said:
Do you unite yourself interiorly to the prayers or do you pray along silently or quietly under your breath?

Do you just follow along with the missal or actually read along with the prayers?
Click to expand...
I unite with the Priest and say the prayers as he says them, but only in my heart. Based on the hand genstures, genuflections, and bows of the head, you can learn to follow right along with him, saying each prayer as he does.

I love hearing mass that way and would recommend it to others. I add a few personal prayers as well. For example, when he elevates the host on the patten (at the offeratory) I mentally make the intention of placing all of my sins, and those I have included in my intention, as well as any personal petitions, on the patten along with the host. Then, when he raises the chalice at the offeratory, after saying the prayer - “I offer to thee of Lord, the chalice of salvation, etc” - I say another prayer whereby I offering of my death and all the pain that accompany it, in union with the death of Jesus on the cross, in reparation for my sins and for all those of my “circle” (which what I call the group of people that I pray for).

Pope Pius X attached a plenary indulgence to that last prayer I mentioned - offering our death and all the pains that accompany it, in union with the death of Jesus. The plenary indulgence applies to the moment of death. After learning about that prayer and that wonderful indulgence, I began to incorporate it into my Mass prayers.

If you are trying to find a way to hear Mass, try uniting with the priest the way I explained above. It keeps you perfectly focused the entire time, and seems to me to be very beneficial. It is also a good way to memorize the Mass pretty quick.
 
It is important to follow along and know what is happening. There are things that I am pretty sure the priest is the only one to say out loud. Such as the Through Him With Him In Him, etc. The things that are supposed to be spoken most congregations speak. LIke the Eucharistic Prayer is something only the priest should say out loud.
 
Puis XII in his encyclical “Mediator Dei” encouraged the faithful to pray the prayers of the Mass along with the priest as a way of uniting themselves with the sacrifice of the Mass. As far as I can make out he didn’t say anything about omitting any parts of the prayers. He said that we should “pray together in the very words and sentiments of the Church.” From the time that I bought my daily missal back in grade school I have tried to do this.

Matthew

PS The encyclical was written 3 months after I was born.
 
drafdog said:
Puis XII in his encyclical “Mediator Dei” encouraged the faithful to pray the prayers of the Mass along with the priest as a way of uniting themselves with the sacrifice of the Mass. As far as I can make out he didn’t say anything about omitting any parts of the prayers. He said that we should “pray together in the very words and sentiments of the Church.” From the time that I bought my daily missal back in grade school I have tried to do this.

Matthew

PS The encyclical was written 3 months after I was born.
Click to expand...
That’s how I was taught too. Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t just sit mindless in the pews saying the rosary. From the time I made my First Communion in spring of 1959 until I became an altar boy in the summer of 1961, my mother had her right index finger pointing out the words in my missal until I could match what was being said in Latin to what I was reading.

To this day I pray along with the priest.
 
scriabin said:
Do you unite yourself interiorly to the prayers or do you pray along silently or quietly under your breath?

Do you just follow along with the missal or actually read along with the prayers?
Click to expand...
Only when I am at the TLM do I find it possible to pray the Mass. The Novus Ordo is so full of distractions that my mind is constantly wandering to the point where I often don’t even feel I have the appropriate disposition to receive Holy Communion.
 
brotherhrolf said:
That’s how I was taught too. Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t just sit mindless in the pews saying the rosary. From the time I made my First Communion in spring of 1959 until I became an altar boy in the summer of 1961, my mother had her right index finger pointing out the words in my missal until I could match what was being said in Latin to what I was reading.

To this day I pray along with the priest.
Click to expand...
No we don’t Brother:tsktsk: You know better. they’ve told us so. We , you I and others, didn’t have a clue what was going on, nope not at all. And since the Priest said so many things very quietly we wouldn’t even know if he said the prayers or not and in fact they probably didn’t:eek:

I get so tired of telling people over and over these old Martin Lutheresque statements about the pre Vatican II Church are in general nothing more than lies and distortions with one aim in mind.

And yes, the first part of this post was pure sarcasm.and i do pray the Mass along with the Priest

JUST THE WAY WE WERE TAUGHT TO DO

In fact, if you look in the front pages of most of the Missals that came out pre Vatican II the laity were ENCOURAGED to join in the prayers with the Priest and thus** ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE** in the sacrifice of the Mass. The fact that some people chose not to in no way changes the fact that a lot probably most of us

DID
 
😃 Isn’t it nice to have memories of what really happened instead of what THEY said happened?
 
scriabin said:
Do you unite yourself interiorly to the prayers or do you pray along silently or quietly under your breath?

Do you just follow along with the missal or actually read along with the prayers?
Click to expand...
I sure do. I make it a point to go 15-minutes to an hour before Mass begins to pray the rosary, meditate on the readings, pray the prayers before Mass and the vesting prayers for priests (one of the fathers on EWTN’s website told a poster there it was okay to pray those on behalf of the celebrant) and pray for specific needs. By the time Mass begins I am ‘soaked’ in prayer and the Liturgy then really becomes a slice of heaven for me. And yes, I follow along in the DRM my wife gave me for Christmas 2 years ago, not just reading the Mass but praying it.

One more thing, when the postcommunion announcements are being read I am immersed in the prayers of thanksgiving.

Stick to your missal. It is one way of active and conscious participation in the holy Mass.

Joe
 
scriabin said:
Do you unite yourself interiorly to the prayers or do you pray along silently or quietly under your breath?

Do you just follow along with the missal or actually read along with the prayers?
Click to expand...
I have a special purse with cards, books of prayer and some 3X5 cards of prayers I have written and my magnificat but once in awhile I sit next to an old man and he prays quietly many blessings and amens just loud enough that only sitting next to him one can hear.
He has such peace in his prayers, that one feels he is a priest.

Now if you are a guy you don’t bring a purse:p

We are getting our first missals Sunday, will have to hang arounf this thread and let you know what was picked.

Barb
 
I follow along with the Missal as closely as possible concentrating on the prayers of the priest (confessing when he does, giving thanks when he does, etc.)

However, some days I find myself very distracted by worldly things, and I just try to think holy thoughts.

This may be a no-no, but I find sometimes I do my penance during Mass, if it involves only prayers. I try to go to confession at least 2 times a month, but my penance usually only lasts through the Introit.
 
…sometimes too I am engrossed in the majesty of the visual and thereby distracted but the Mass has so many levels whether the superficial or the spiritual…👍
 
Our new missal is a yearly one, I just found out today. It is very condensed and the daily mass lists the scripture but does not quote it so I will have to bring my bible.

It is LIW Liturgy in the Word (year A) and goes from Dec. 2 through the 2008 year Advent to Advent I guess.

It does have all the basics of the mass and prayers and the creed etc., no Latin, since we got about 400 it probably wasn’t cheap.

It doesn’t have any music, but we have seperate hymn book for that. It isn’t really something that you can read just a reference.
Barb
 
I appreciate all your responses above. I would like to suggest something that was given by the Priest at one of our local parishes. I read this out of a little newspaper but I noticed a website listed at the end. Please check out www.greatcrusade.organd click on the heading “The Holy Mass”. Just so happens that I had recently read “The Lambs Supper” by Scott Hahn and really wanted to know more about the Mass. I have read it several times and done what it says you should during various parts of the mass. If you’ll read through it you’ll note it has been approved by the Church in Mexico as not conflicting with Catholic doctrine or dogma and is left to the believers faith kind of like Medjugoria (spelling?) It’ll make you tremble after a good confession.😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top