Who writes what we pray for during the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass?

[OraLabora]

Yet if they just added the words “treated with” before “equal” and “dignity” after, it would be a fine statement.

 

[corsair]

Almost forgot about the “prayers of the faithful”. Don’t hear any of that at our Mass.

 

[gracepoole]

I’m not here to argue politics. But I’m not at Mass to hear political views I oppose, either – views that in any other setting I would push back against.

Not to be difficult but there may be political issues you or anyone else in the pews may oppose but that the Church promotes and accepts, so the standard that political topics may make people uncomfortable is an unwise one to use as a guide. For example, immigration reform. I’ve seen some visibly twitchy folks when a prayer intention for this topic pops up. Yet the USCCB supports it and it should, in fact, be something for which we pray. Perhaps it’s sometimes a good thing that in “any other setting” we’d openly oppose the take on specific topics but during the Mass, we’re forced to think about them in different ways.

 

[OnRoadToEmmaus]

Not to be difficult but there may be political issues you or anyone else in the pews may oppose but that the Church promotes and accepts, so the standard that political topics may make people uncomfortable is an unwise one to use as a guide. For example, immigration reform. I’ve seen some visibly twitchy folks when a prayer intention for this topic pops up. Yet the USCCB supports it and it should, in fact, be something for which we pray. Perhaps it’s sometimes a good thing that in “any other setting” we’d openly oppose the take on specific topics but during the Mass, we’re forced to think about them in different ways.

Fine, but as I said, it’s a one-way street at my church, and it’s heading left. There are no similar but conservative church tenets mixed in. I don’t hear about ending abortion, or traditional marriage and religious conscience rights being under assault by leaders of government.

Perhaps it would be a good thing if those Catholics who vote for politicians who put these matters under assault to be “forced to think about them in different ways” at Mass, too.

 

[bigdave3119]

I always listen nclosely to the intentions so I will not respond if I think that trhe prayer is not something that I do not agree with. On the other hand I have never heard an intension that I believed was wrong. I am thankful for that but more than ever will pay close attention!

 

[GoGoDiego]

It depends in some areas. Usually in the Philippines, for sake of uniformity, they refer to the ones made by St. Paul Publications or Word and life Publications. Sample intentions provided in the Missal could be used. (Which is found in the appendix) I do not know if the ones used at LOTH could also be used.

 

[InThePew]

The GIRM (at 69, 71) describes the Prayer of the Faithful as follows:

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… The intentions announced should be sober, be composed freely but prudently, and be succinct, and they should express the prayer of the entire community.

What’s important to remember here is that these are the prayers of the people - so much so that they are not to be led by a priest when someone else (for example a deacon or lector) is available. Beyond the broad guidelines set out in the GIRM regarding their order (for the needs of the Church; for public authorities and the salvation of the whole world; for those burdened by any kind of difficulty;for the local community) the composition of the prayers is largely left up to whoever is responsible for their composition. In this way, the intention is that they are able to truly reflect the needs of the Church, the world and the community and the time they are being prayed - as well as taking into account particular circumstances (such as a funeral).

Of course, for the prayer to truly be that of the community they need, as the GIRM instructs, to be “composed freely but prudently” - obviously, something which his highly political will likely be divisive and so not “truly that of the entire community.” Of course, almost anything can be politicised or at least interpreted in that way - as the examples of other posters have shown. So, given this, it’s important that case is taken in their composition (again, as the GIRM directs) even though they are intended to be freely composed and expressed.

As a slight aside, the text of the prayers should not be lifted directly from a book, otherwise there’s a risk that they become so generalised that they cannot really be said to be the prayers of a particular community.

In these prayers, we ask for God’s help with the needs expressed within them. It is not so much a case of “telling God what to do” but rather expressing our needs and asking for His help since, as St Augustine said, in prayer man is a beggar before God.

 

[Usige]

When we first came to our current parish they would provide the canned intentions from a publisher. After that bit they would ask for intentions from the people in the pews who would then call out their intention from their seats. Great thought right?

Every week we would hear things like “Pray for the end to this terrible war”, “Pray for equal pay for women”, “Pray for the respect for privacy”, etc. Not that these requests were bad in of themselves, but it became a back and forth between politically liberal and conservative intentions. After about a year or two of this the new pastor said enough and we returned to the more common “pray for the intentions listed in the prayer request book and those prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts”.

 

[InThePew]

When we first came to our current parish they would provide the canned intentions from a publisher. After that bit they would ask for intentions from the people in the pews who would then call out their intention from their seats. Great thought right?
…
After about a year or two of this the new pastor said enough and we returned to the more common “pray for the intentions listed in the prayer request book and those prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts”.

Such is one of the many problems with spontaneous intentions - nice idea in theory and arguably fine with a small congregation - but fraught with difficulty despite being well intentioned. Another problem is the risk of something being made public when the person affected would have preferred otherwise - eg: “pray for the difficulties Mary and Bob are having with their marriage”