Prayer of the Faithful - Can anyone chime in?

[Love_is_Patient]

At a daily Mass recently, when it came time for the Prayer of the Faithful, the reader led the prayers, as usual. But then she asked, “And for whom else and what else shall we pray?”

About a half dozen people chimed in with a prayer intention (to each, we responded, “Lord, hear our prayer.”)

I’ve never seen this done before. Is it a licit option or are we playing create-your-own liturgy again?

Love is Patient

 

[teachccd]

We do the same thing at our parish on weekday Masses. The priest will ask after the read petitions, “Are there any intentions?” and the some folks will speak up. I also do not know if this is permitted. I never really questioned it since many times we are asked to pray for our own special intentions which we dewll upon within our hearts. I can’t imagine that expressing these intentions out loud would be illicit since it is in total context but I’m sure that other posters will have the GIRM or other documents stating the rubrics that involve the Prayer of the Faithful…teachccd

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I’ve been in parishes where that has happened too. I hate to say it but I have an overwhelming urge to say, “Let us pray that this unwelcome addition to the liturgy cease here and now. . .”

 

[uwwhitewater84]

They do this at the cathederal in my diocese, they also do this at my regular parish so I don’t think it is totally unheard of. I have heard however, that this is not correct practice.

 

[teachccd]

I’ve been in parishes where that has happened too. I hate to say it but I have an overwhelming urge to say, “Let us pray that this unwelcome addition to the liturgy cease here and now. . .”

Where do we find this to be an addition? In other words, when we are asked to pray for our own special intentions in silence why would it be considered an addition if they were spoken instead of remaining silenced? I truly don’t know and any documentation would be appreciated…teachccd

 

[teachccd]

They do this at the cathederal in my diocese, they also do this at my regular parish so I don’t think it is totally unheard of. I have heard however, that this is not correct practice.

Where have you heard this? I am now so curious…

 

[uwwhitewater84]

Where have you heard this? I am now so curious…

On these boards…it has come up once or twice before.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I’ve been in parishes where that has happened too. I hate to say it but I have an overwhelming urge to say, “Let us pray that this unwelcome addition to the liturgy cease here and now. . .”

 

[FastLearner]

I don’t see it allowed or dissallowed in the GIRM:

The Prayer of the Faithful

1. In the Prayer of the Faithful, the people respond in a certain way to the word of God which they have welcomed in faith and, exercising the office of their baptismal priesthood, offer prayers to God for the salvation of all. It is fitting that such a prayer be included, as a rule, in Masses celebrated with a congregation, so that petitions will be offered for the holy Church, for civil authorities, for those weighed down by various needs, for all men and women, and for the salvation of the whole world.67

1. As a rule, the series of intentions is to be

a. For the needs of the Church;
b. For public authorities and the salvation of the whole world;
c. For those burdened by any kind of difficulty;
d. For the local community.

Nevertheless, in a particular celebration, such as Confirmation, Marriage, or a Funeral, the series of intentions may reflect more closely the particular occasion.

1. It is for the priest celebrant to direct this prayer from the chair. He himself begins it with a brief introduction, by which he invites the faithful to pray, and likewise he concludes it with a prayer. The intentions announced should be sober, be composed freely but prudently, and be succinct, and they should express the prayer of the entire community.

The intentions are announced from the ambo or from another suitable place, by the deacon or by a cantor, a lector, or one of the lay faithful.68

The people, however, stand and give expression to their prayer either by an invocation said together after each intention or by praying in silence.

 

[Seatuck]

I think the “People offer their own individual prayers” is glaringly missing from the GIRM.
I’ve heard people petition for things that are against church teaching such as women priests and for the church to change its mind against birth control. It’s outrageous. The majority of people responded Lord Hear Our Prayer. Either they weren’t paying attention or they agreed.

 

[Love_is_Patient]

I think the “People offer their own individual prayers” is glaringly missing from the GIRM.
I’ve heard people petition for things that are against church teaching such as women priests and for the church to change its mind against birth control. It’s outrageous. The majority of people responded Lord Hear Our Prayer. Either they weren’t paying attention or they agreed.

Oh my goodness. I guess I should count my blessings that the prayers I heard today weren’t anything like that.

Love is Patient

 

[Love_is_Patient]

The intentions are announced from the ambo or from another suitable place, by the deacon or by a cantor, a lector, or one of the lay faithful.68

So, it seems like the intentions are not supposed to be announced by multiple lay faithful from the pews.

Good to know.

Love is Patient

 

[benedictgal]

Where do we find this to be an addition? In other words, when we are asked to pray for our own special intentions in silence why would it be considered an addition if they were spoken instead of remaining silenced? I truly don’t know and any documentation would be appreciated…teachccd

From a practical standpoint, you might very well get some strange intercessions. Many times, well-meaning folks will throw in some sort of a political spin to it. When I was much younger and dumber, I made the mistake of praying out loud for my boss to win his re-election. Those of us who work for elected official depend on their being re-elected so that we can keep our jobs. The polls didn’t look too good and this was more of an act of despiration on my part (22-year-old kid). The associate pastor (who is not known as being the most conservative of the bunch in his order) chewed me out to no end and I cried my eyes out. The transitional deacon, who had just been ordained, came up to me and said that he understood what had happened. My boss wound up winning re-election rather handily.

In my parish, when my pastor does the “open mike” at daily Mass, I usually pray that we be faithful to the Liturgy of the Church and accept the Holy Sacrifice as the Church’s most precious gift. Hopefully, he’ll get the drift.

 

[jpjd]

At our daily Mass, we used to be able to say intentions out loud, but then one woman started saying for the same intention every day, for weeks on end. It was a valid intention, but for some reason it seemed overbearing to say it every day. My pastor must have thought so too, because one day he just said something like, “For the personal intentions in the silence of our hearts” and that’s what he’s been doing ever since.

 

[Newbie2]

We have this at our daily mass and it’s never been problematic. From a practical standpoint, there isn’t an opportunity to inform or print up such intentions before mass, I fail to see where this is an “unwelcome addition” to the liturgy, at least in our parish.

I do see, however, a potential for problems such as have been mentioned. Methinks they would be insignificant if the presider is paying attention and addresses them ASAP if they happen to come up.

Again, it’s not a problem in our parish, and under our circumstances with 20 or so people at daily mass in the chapel I see nothing wrong with the practice. It makes us aware of particular circumstances in our parish community where we can be of assistance, at the very least, in prayer.

 

[regression]

I’ve been in parishes where that has happened too. I hate to say it but I have an overwhelming urge to say, “Let us pray that this unwelcome addition to the liturgy cease here and now. . .”

Ha, I like that.

 

[FrDavid96]

Where have you heard this? I am now so curious…

Whenever the local community decides to make changes to the way the GIRM describes a particular element of the Mass, that is itself illicit. The GIRM describes how the general intercessions are to be offered. Any deviation from that is de facto illicit.

It’s also a violation of the basic principles of Liturgy. The Liturgy of the Church is not chaos. Unfortunately, when this sort of thing is done, that’s the inevitable result. Petitions for specific local (or otherwise timely) intentions may certainly be added–no question about it. But it has to be done in the way that the GIRM describes it. The deacon might have as a last petition something like “for all of our own intentions…” and that’s fine. Another option is to allow people to present their intentions to the deacon before Mass and he can mention them, although this runs into the danger of getting out-of-hand, so it has to be done carefully.

It would be not only impractical, but downright impossible for the Church to list every possible illicit change or addition to the Mass. That’s why the Church makes the more general statement that nothing can be changed or added without the prior approval of the Holy See. The absence of any instruction that the format of the general intercessions may be changed, is an indication that it is not permitted to change it.

 

[FrDavid96]

We have this at our daily mass and it’s never been problematic. From a practical standpoint, there isn’t an opportunity to inform or print up such intentions before mass, I fail to see where this is an “unwelcome addition” to the liturgy, at least in our parish.

I do see, however, a potential for problems such as have been mentioned. Methinks they would be insignificant if the presider is paying attention and addresses them ASAP if they happen to come up.

Again, it’s not a problem in our parish, and under our circumstances with 20 or so people at daily mass in the chapel I see nothing wrong with the practice. It makes us aware of particular circumstances in our parish community where we can be of assistance, at the very least, in prayer.

There are other ways to achieve the same goal, but without making an illicit change to the Mass. For example, at a daily Mass with an average of 20 people, I would not see a problem with the priest asking people to mention their own petitions just before beginning the Mass. That’s just one possible way to do it.

But we have to keep in mind that any deviation from the GIRM is itself a problem.

 

[Newbie2]

There are other ways to achieve the same goal, but without making an illicit change to the Mass. For example, at a daily Mass with an average of 20 people, I would not see a problem with the priest asking people to mention their own petitions just before beginning the Mass. That’s just one possible way to do it.

But we have to keep in mind that any deviation from the GIRM is itself a problem.

Do you mean in order for the priest of deacon to mention them in the prayers of the faithful?

BTW, is it allowed in the GIRM for the priest to ask people to mention their own petitions just before the beginning of mass?

 

[nlm]

Do you mean in order for the priest of deacon to mention them in the prayers of the faithful?

BTW, is it allowed in the GIRM for the priest to ask people to mention their own petitions just before the beginning of mass?

What is the GRIM ? When we have special intentions dealing with illness, surgery or other special issues we bring them to the Pastor’s attention and they are included in what we refer to as the ," Pastoral Prayer" at the beginning of our service. This seems to work very well. If someone wanted to win the lotto or to find a loss set of keys for example !!! I am quite certain those intentions would not reach the pulpit.Our services offer a fair amount of flexibility and lend themselves to spontaneous changes which has only happened once in my 7 years there. A member of our church family had been quite ill for some time. One Sunday morning about halfway through the service a gentleman arrived and quietly made his way to a few congregants sitting to the side. They all got up and quietly left. The Pastor stopped what he was doing and advised us that the sick gentleman’s condition had taken a turn for the worse and the family had been summend to his bedside. He then suggested we alter the service and offer prayer for this gentleman who was on his way to heaven but also for his family who would be experiencing much grief at the loss. It was wonderful to be able to address this very real situation in this very personal way.The service then continued on as planned.This added about 10 minutes to the service.NLM