Posted on 01/12/2005 10:38:15 AM PST by NYer
As I understand the theory behind the General Intercessions or Prayer of the Faithful, the petitions are supposed to be short and rather formulaic: we are to pray for the universal Church and its pastor, the local Church and its pastors, the civil authorities, the sick, the dead and dying, and the world’s salvation, adding special local needs as required.
Yet the subscription services that supply many parishes with their general intercessions often turn the petitions into mini-sermons in which various messages, theological and political, are encoded. I particularly dislike the now-widespread custom of jumping immediately from a pro forma prayer for the universal Church or the Pope to a second, much lengthier petition for some political desideratum, often accompanied by a protracted secondary clause suggesting, not too subtly, that all social goods are to be secured by government action.
These canned petitions do have one use, though: they reflect with considerable precision the default positions on certain questions in today’s U.S. Catholic establishment.
Take, for example, a petition I heard (in the #2 slot, of course) a few weeks ago: "That all world leaders may put aside their political differences and work for true and lasting peace, let us pray to the Lord." I didn’t. Why? Because that petition, however innocently crafted, reflects a host of misconceptions about world politics, world peace, and world order: misconceptions that I have been trying to counter — evidently, without much success! — for more than a quarter-century.
Why couldn’t I answer "Lord, hear our prayer" to the petition I just cited?
First, because I don’t believe that "political differences," in the normal sense of that term, define the fault-lines in world politics today. The differences between the civilized world and Al-Qaeda, or between the United States and North Korea, or between Christian blacks and Muslim Arabs in Sudan, or between the Russians of Beslan and the terrorists who held their children hostage and then murdered them in cold blood, are not "political differences"—if by "political differences" we mean disagreements about the best means to achieve commonly-agreed public goods.
The difference between the civilized world and Al-Qaeda is that the civilized world wishes to run its affairs by the rule of law, and Al-Qaeda wishes to impose its Islamist will on others through indiscriminate violence and the murder of innocents. North Korea is run by a lunatic with a couple of nuclear weapons who has no compunction about starving his own people; our “differences” with him and his regime are not “political,” in the sense that House Speaker Denny Hastert’s “differences” with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are “political.”
Prayers that suggest otherwise are unreal.
Secondly, I couldn’t answer “Lord, hear our prayer” because, as a matter of considered moral judgment, I don’t want my political leaders to put aside their differences with Al-Qaeda, or Kim Jong-il, or the nuclear-weapons-seeking mullahs of Iran, or the Islamists who commit genocide in Darfur and Beslan. I want my political leaders to craft wise policies, guided by moral reason, to insure that, if I may put it bluntly, we win and they lose: that is, that the civilized world and the rule of law prevail over terrorists and crazies.
Third, I couldn’t say “Lord, hear our prayer” to that oleaginous petition because it smacks of the psychobabble that has corrupted Catholic thinking about world politics for forty years or more. In the classic Catholic understanding of the word, peace is “order”: the “order” of law-governed societies whose domestic and international affairs are guided by a commitment to the rule of law and the political adjudication of conflict. “Peace,” as Catholics have understood it since Augustine, is not a matter of therapy; it’s a matter of law and politics. But you couldn’t tell that from the petition above, which sounds far more like Rodney King (“Why can’t we all just get along?”) than The City of God (“Peace is the tranquillity of order”).
Am I making too big a deal out of this? I don’t think so. The worship we offer God, including our intercessory prayer, should arise out of our deepest Catholic convictions. It shouldn’t be shaped, and mis-shaped, by the shibboleths of the therapeutic society.
Please feel free to write and post some good intercessory prayers, right here. I will make certain they are used.
I agree with you, I'm very uncomfortable when those sorts of advocacy messages being aired in the prayer schedule.
I, a Catholic, was taken to an Episcopal service in Somerville, MA once...they prayed that world leaders would recognize globabl warming.
Good one, George.
Although one wonders if there is any sort of Catholic 'thinking' going on sometimes.
I can't help think that you are asking for a world of trouble by inviting this, but I'll take a shot. How 'bout:
For the repentance and conversion of all enemies of the Church, both without and within, especially those that wear red hats.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for all who do not have recourse to thee, especially the enemies of the Church, and those who are recommended to thee.
Lol!! Actually, I am serious! As lector, I have to develop the petitions on those weeks that I read. Rather than toss out the usual nonsense, here is your 'golden' opportunity to request something more meaningful.
There's a reason for that, I borrowed it :^), then put my own personal spin on it.
Those that come into Your House of worship, that they recognize and reverence Your Presence, we pray to the Lord.
Those that pray for peace in the world, that they learn the True Peace that passes all understanding by loving and serving You, we pray to the Lord.
Beautiful! Thanks ... I'll add them to the list.
Pray that women follow scripture and stop speaking out to the congregation.
I like that prayer...but I have come nothing less than that type of love from St. Maximillian Kolbe, one of my favorite hero saints...
1. That nominees to the US Supreme Court will be people who respect God's plan for the human family.
2. That those nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court and all courts will respect life, marriage, and family.
3. That U.S. courts will always honor the sacredness of human life.
4. That America's judges will follow the 10 Commandments and the Declaration of Independence.
Anyone who likes any of the petitions in post 13, needs only to print them out and hand them to the parish secretary, in most instances.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Long overdue article! I recall especially, here in Boston, not too long after the height of the abuse scandal, one that went "May the leaders of the Church continue to show Christ to the world . . ."
Boy, was my beeber stuned! Continue???!! Right -- great job, there, guys!
I, too, make a practice of listening carefully to each to be sure I can in conscience pray for it!
Thank you ... they have been added to the list. The one petition I ALWAYS read, is for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
fortunately my parish doesn't engage in PC psychobabble petitions though I've heard some doozies in the past (e.g., prayers for an end to all discrimination against gays but no prayers for an end to abortion). We always pray for the troops and that terrorist attacks against the US be prevented, as well as prayers for the dead, the sick, and the Pope.
I agree.....I wouldn't have been able to reply to that petition, either. I want a true peace of Christ to govern Earth...not the false peace that so many seek, which would end up being the peace of the grave.
LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.