Is it proper to add and recite a home made prayer at Mass right before the Presentation of the Gifts?

[Malkin71]

In my Parish, for the past few Months, we are reciting a home made prayer that one of the parishiners composed. The prayer is recited right before the “Presentation of the Gifts”. To me I do believe it is an “addition to the Mass” and it is an “Abuse” and it should not be said. I asked a friend of mine who is a Priest. He said it was ok. I do want to talk to my Pastor about it. He approved of it. What do all of you think?

 

[Cluny]

What is the gist of this prayer, and who is saying it?

Could you be talking about the prayer the Priest says at the end of the Intercessions?

There MAY be some room for extemporitzation in that prayer, but I’ll let someone more learned in the details of the Ordinary Form deal with that issue.

 

[Malkin71]

What is the gist of this prayer, and who is saying it?

Could you be talking about the prayer the Priest says at the end of the Intercessions?

There MAY be some room for extemporitzation in that prayer, but I’ll let someone more learned in the details of the Ordinary Form deal with that issue.

Everyone who is at Mass says the prayer out loud. It is not the prayer the Priest says at the end of the Intercessions. Right before Fr. and the Altar servers walk to the front of the Sanctuary. We all say the prayer.

The prayer was composed by a member of the choir. It is basically praying to Our Lord for everyone in our Parish. I could see if the prayer was there for people to say it before or after Mass silently. But, it is rough saying something homemade that wasn’t in the intercessions.

 

[dashso40]

i’m not an expert by any means of the Mass, but this doesn’t sound right…Everytime I go to Mass, I hear pretty much the same basic prayers…That’s what I love about it…Sounds like an abuse…anyone out there who knows for sure?..I know a lot of people on this forum are experts…let’s hear you

 

[benedictgal]

Here is what Redemptionis Sacramentum notes:

[11.] The Mystery of the Eucharist “is too great for anyone to permit himself to treat it according to his own whim, so that its sacredness and its universal ordering would be obscured”.27 On the contrary, anyone who acts thus by giving free rein to his own inclinations, even if he is a Priest, injures the substantial unity of the Roman Rite, which ought to be vigorously preserved,28 and becomes responsible for actions that are in no way consistent with the hunger and thirst for the living God that is experienced by the people today. Nor do such actions serve authentic pastoral care or proper liturgical renewal; instead, they deprive Christ’s faithful of their patrimony and their heritage. For arbitrary actions are not conducive to true renewal,29 but are detrimental to the right of Christ’s faithful to a liturgical celebration that is an expression of the Church’s life in accordance with her tradition and discipline. In the end, they introduce elements of distortion and disharmony into the very celebration of the Eucharist, which is oriented in its own lofty way and by its very nature to signifying and wondrously bringing about the communion of divine life and the unity of the People of God.30 The result is uncertainty in matters of doctrine, perplexity and scandal on the part of the People of God, and, almost as a necessary consequence, vigorous opposition, all of which greatly confuse and sadden many of Christ’s faithful in this age of ours when Christian life is often particularly difficult on account of the inroads of “secularization” as well.31

I am afraid that what the OP reports is a prime example about the fact that no one, not even the celebrant, has the right to add anythng to the Mass. What the OP describes is, as I see it, going against not only Redemptionis Sacramentum, but the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy.

 

[Malkin71]

Here is what Redemptionis Sacramentum notes:

I am afraid that what the OP reports is a prime example about the fact that no one, not even the celebrant, has the right to add anythng to the Mass. What the OP describes is, as I see it, going against not only Redemptionis Sacramentum, but the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy.

I can get a copy and post it here for all to read.

 

[John_Lilburne]

From the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) approved for the USA, which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :

“138. … After the intentions, the priest, with hands extended, concludes the petitions with a prayer.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
139. When the Prayer of the Faithful is completed, all sit, and the Offertory chant begins (cf.
above, no. 74).”

“74. The procession bringing the gifts is accompanied by the Offertory chant (cf. above, no.
37b), which continues at least until the gifts have been placed on the altar. The norms on the
manner of singing are the same as for the Entrance chant (cf. above, no. 48). Singing may always
accompany the rite at the offertory, even when there is no procession with the gifts.”

“48. The singing at this time is done either alternately by the choir and the people or in a
similar way by the cantor and the people, or entirely by the people, or by the choir alone. In the
dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Entrance Chant: (1) the
antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or
in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song
from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the
Diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable
liturgical song similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop.55 …”.

Reciting a prayer together is not singing something together, so the GIRM is not being followed.