Prayers of the Faithful, Intercessions, Petitions? Which is it?

[Elzee]

When we recite the prayer petitions at Mass and respond “Lord hear our prayer”, what is the official name of that part of the Mass? I’ve heard it called “Prayers of the Faithful”, “the Petitions” and “Intercessions”???

 

[japhy]

In Vatican II’s 1963 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (n. 53), it was called by two names: the “Oratio communis” (“Common Prayer”) or the “Oratio fidelium” (“Prayer of the Faithful”).

In the 1964 instruction on the liturgy Inter Oecumenici, the two names given (in English) are “universal prayer” and “prayer of the faithful”. (n. 56)

In Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum, he uses the names from the Vatican II document.

The modern General Instruction of the Roman Missal calls it the “Prayer of the Faithful” throughout. This seems to be the preferred title since 1969.

I’ve also heard it called the “General Intercessions”.

 

[Phemie]

When we recite the prayer petitions at Mass and respond “Lord hear our prayer”, what is the official name of that part of the Mass? I’ve heard it called “Prayers of the Faithful”, “the Petitions” and “Intercessions”???

Depends on which book you look at. My Rite of Baptism for Children calls it simply “Intercessions”; GIRM calls it “Prayers of the Faithful”; CBW III (Canada’s hymnal) calls it “General Intercessions”; and finally, the new translation of the Roman Missal calls it “Universal Prayer” and adds “that is, the Prayer of the Faithful or Bidding Prayers”. The most common name I find is “General Intercessions”