Prayer of the Faithful - Can anyone chime in?

[Malkin71]

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

Were I work they have a Morning Mass for around 20 or so people who show up and the Priest asks for all those who have intentions to say them out loud. I too believe this should stop. In our Parish we have a prayer intention book that people write down prayer intentions to be prayed at Mass. The last request is “For all the prayers in our intention book we now pray? The people respond Lord hear our prayer. Also, I can remember on some Masses where the last petition is " For all our own petitions we ask our Lord.” the People respond "Lord hear our prayer.

Also I do believe that the prayer to the faithful should be brief. I lector and I see from a book that I read the prayer intentions from, that some of them do not hold Catholic teachings. The prayers say, “As we gather around the Table”, As gather for this communion meal". I reword them as " As we are gathered here for the Holy Sacrafice of Mass" and “as we are here before the Altar”. I wonder how some of these books get approved?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I do like the idea of having an intentions book and having the priest say at the very end, For the intentions in our intentions book Lord hear our prayer. (especially because he can actually read through and make sure the intentions are appropriate.)

As another poster noted, in this free-for-all situation, virtually anything can get said, not all of it necessarily what any of the faithful should pray for, either. In a large church, sometimes all you’ll hear is ‘Mimble mumble" followed by "LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER’. Hey, I don’t know if “mimble mumble’ was for something I would pray for, like an end to abortion, for the souls of the faithful, for the sick and suffering. . .or whether it’s for, “women priests”, 'freedom of reproductive choice”, ‘that my mother in law finally kicks the bucket’, etc.

 

[japhy]

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

I think it would be better just to let them mention their prayer intentions before Mass so that the rest of the congregation knows about them and can pray for them, rather than to make the Prayer of the Faithful in the liturgy dependent upon the local congregation.

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

Har har.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

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.

We had it at one time. A lot of “for my special intention”. then a few “for my very special intention”. etc. etc.

ow if someone has died within the previous 24 hours, or has become seriously ill a note is given to the reader who will add them by name to the existing prayer for all the dead or ill. Likewise on Sundays we pen them into the existing list.

 

[JMJ_coder]

What about the Intercessions for the Liturgy of the Hours?

 

[FrDavid96]

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

That’s not necessarily what I had in mind, but now that you mention it, I don’t see anything wrong with it, and depending upon the circumstances, it might be a good thing. What I actually had in mind was for the congregation to mention their own intentions so that others could join with them in praying for those same intentions throughout the Mass (offering their own participation in the Mass for those intentions, in other words.)

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

The GIRM only deals with the Mass itself (at least in this context). Since it would be before the Mass begins, the GIRM wouldn’t apply as such. The Church does encourage us to pray before and after Mass, both privately and corporately. There’s nothing wrong with inviting people to share their prayer intentions with the rest of the community aloud before the Mass starts. I can see a potential for this getting out-of-hand, but that’s a different matter. Personally, I would not do this, but that’s vastly different from saying that it would be illicit. Of course, it could not be done as some kind of substitute for the General Intercessions.

 

[FrDavid96]

Were I work they have a Morning Mass for around 20 or so people who show up and the Priest asks for all those who have intentions to say them out loud. I too believe this should stop. In our Parish we have a prayer intention book that people write down prayer intentions to be prayed at Mass. The last request is “For all the prayers in our intention book we now pray? The people respond Lord hear our prayer. Also, I can remember on some Masses where the last petition is " For all our own petitions we ask our Lord.” the People respond "Lord hear our prayer.

Also I do believe that the prayer to the faithful should be brief. I lector and I see from a book that I read the prayer intentions from, that some of them do not hold Catholic teachings. The prayers say, “As we gather around the Table”, As gather for this communion meal". I reword them as " As we are gathered here for the Holy Sacrafice of Mass" and “as we are here before the Altar”.

I wonder how some of these books get approved?

They don’t.

If we’re thinking of the same books; the ones the missallette publishers send to their subscribers, they’re full of illicit changes to the Mass. Last time I looked (and it has been a while) they lacked any ecclesiastical approval.

 

[Newbie2]

That’s not necessarily what I had in mind, but now that you mention it, I don’t see anything wrong with it, and depending upon the circumstances, it might be a good thing. What I actually had in mind was for the congregation to mention their own intentions so that others could join with them in praying for those same intentions throughout the Mass (offering their own participation in the Mass for those intentions, in other words.)

OK, I understand what you had in mind.

The GIRM only deals with the Mass itself (at least in this context). Since it would be before the Mass begins, the GIRM wouldn’t apply as such. The Church does encourage us to pray before and after Mass, both privately and corporately. There’s nothing wrong with inviting people to share their prayer intentions with the rest of the community aloud before the Mass starts. I can see a potential for this getting out-of-hand, but that’s a different matter. Personally, I would not do this, but that’s vastly different from saying that it would be illicit. Of course, it could not be done as some kind of substitute for the General Intercessions.

Also, if this became a habit, isn’t it sort of like adding on to the mass? Not in a technical sense, but if it’s something that’s always immediately done before mass, the only thing that separates it from actually being part of the mass (at least in the mind of some parishioners who don’t know about the GIRM) is a the processional hymn. I agree that this could get out of hand, and become a defacto “illicit part of the mass” (note quotations ).

 

[puzzleannie]

they used to do it in my old parish, but the new pastor put a stop to it the first time he heard one of those “please pray for my husband Joe Smith to stop running around with that slutty Sue Jones and come home and act like a real man” intentions. They still do it however when they have a communion service, led by a lady of the parish, on Father’s day off.

 

[Newbie2]

Oh, my. I don’t know if I’d bust out laughing or not if I’d have heard that one. I’d guess it got real quiet in there…

 

[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 :
“352. … Since, indeed, a variety of options is provided for the different parts of the Mass, it is necessary
for the deacon, the lectors, the psalmist, the cantor, the commentator, and the choir to be
completely sure before the celebration which text for which each is responsible is to be used and
that nothing be improvised. Harmonious planning and carrying out of the rites will great
assistance in disposing the faithful to participate in the Eucharist.”

“138. After the recitation of the Creed, the priest, standing at the chair with hands joined, by
means of a brief introduction invites the faithful to participate in the Prayer of the Faithful. Then
the cantor, the lector, or another person announces the intentions from the ambo or from some
other suitable place while facing the people, who take their part by responding in supplication.
After the intentions, the priest, with hands extended, concludes the petitions with a prayer.”
(My bold text.)

 

[Digitonomy]

What about the Intercessions for the Liturgy of the Hours?

Good question. Do the intercessions in the Liturgy of the Hours have a different purpose and form from those at mass? And is there a separate governing document like the GIRM for the Liturgy of the Hours, or do we simply have the Breviary and such?

 

[Irishmom2]

Years ago I attended a parish where petitions were welcomed out loud. There was one man that would say his VERY long intention out loud every Sunday. He said it VERY loudly and it brought the mass to a grinding halt. This went on for a rather long time. I timed it once and it was ninety seconds long. (Okay, now is the time I get dumped on that I must not have been concentrating on the mass. I did it to contact the pastor about my displeasure/ discomfort at this…) It was quite a controversy in our parish. He was allowed to drone on with his intentions each week even though a part of it condemned the priests in that parish. I think I went away to college at some point and he was gone when I returned. And not missed by me.

 

[John_Lilburne]

Good question. Do the intercessions in the Liturgy of the Hours have a different purpose and form from those at mass? And is there a separate governing document like the GIRM for the Liturgy of the Hours, or do we simply have the Breviary and such?

There is a General Introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH). It is found at the front of the full editions of the Breviary. This ceremony is also found in the Ceremonial of Bishops.

Some extracts from the GILH:
"180 The petitions which have been restored to the Mass of the Roman Rite are also found at Vespers, though, as described below, in a different way. …
"185 Episcopal Conferences have the right to adapt the formulas of The Divine Office and approve new intercessions, [footnote 15: Sacrosanctum Concilium, n 38.] keeping however the following norms. …
"188 It is permissible to add special intentions at Lauds and Vespers. …
“193 The different methods of saying the intercessions are thus: the priest or minister says both parts of the intention and the congregation adds the invariable response, or pauses for silence; other the priest or minister says only the first part and the congregation the second part of the intention.”

The Ceremonial of Bishops has about these intentions: “205. … A minister holds the book and the bishop give the introductory invitation. Then from the ambo or some other suitable place one of the deacons announces the intentions and the people respond.”

References:
Divine Office, published by E.J. Dwyer, Sydney, 1974, ISBN 085574233X.
Ceremonial of Bishops, Liturgical Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8146-1818-9.