Cardinal Dolan of New York let it slip, but we all know it, the Universal Prayer is boring and unnecessary. In fact, I believe that St. Patrick’s drops the Universal Prayer during the weekday Mass which is broadcast on Catholic Radio. So, while ill conceived, it is optional.
While the Roman Missal gives examples of the Universal Prayer, most parishes simply make them up. Often they are statements to God, not prayers, or communications to the congregation about what is happening in the world and quite often with a political slant.
Some actual examples of Universal Prayers are the following:
For all who are living in adultery, may the church accompany you. We pray to the Lord.
For President Trump, may a good democratic candidate be elected to replace him.
For those who have too many children, may the Church find ways to help them limit births. We pray to the lord.
I could go on.
If the Roman Canon is used, there is absolutely no need for the Universal Prayer.
And while we are at eliminating useless additions to the Latin Rite Mass, like the Presentation of the offerings, “Handshake, kiss, Hug of Peace” the pandemic producing common chalice, the universal prayer and other such novelties, let us add the following:
Some Latin
The PATFOTA
Ad Orientem
The Gradual
The Traditional Offertory Prayers
The Three-fold Dominus non sum dignus
The Placeat
11 comments:
Thanks for letting us know that some Catholic Churches are campaigning against President Trump. I will let the IRS know say they can begin revocation proceedings on their tax exempt status because such a prayer violates the provisions of the IRC. FYI, you can thank Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson for that addition to the IRC!!!
For years I have listened with clenched teeth as these tedious, inane "intentions" are rattled off at Mass. I thought they were penned by the USCCB, but maybe there are other evil forces behind it as well?
OUR (just not MINE) "prayer intentions" are always for establishment of the Kingdom on earth....
universal peace, universal justice...
that all world leaders listen to God more than do most churchmen...
that we all learn to live forever, and that until that happens, we feel "accompanied" even while dying in screaming agony...
and that our parish always shows everybody what fantastic Christians we are as we always reach out and accompany every person we meet so that they can say they have met God who looks a lot like folk who avoid disreputable people every chance they get....especially by our ecumenical food pantry for alcoholic crackheads who refuse to work when there is free stuff and wonderful pantry drawing ever more of same quality "brothers and sisters in Christ", even while own parishoners die of untreated disease due to lwck of money and insurance, uncalled, unmissed, and no food in own kitchens.
oh, and we pray for the pope and bishops in union with him, that they manage to actually do any of the above, even just one of them.
You can tell by the prayers that we truly are the most wonderful of people because we are sensitive and caring and accompany anyone in anything, because "and they'll know we are Christians by our dove, by our dove, yes they'll know we are Christians by our dove." Sometimes, even Jesus is mentioned, which is that NEW new evangelization which displaced the old new evangelization.
There are some good resources for these prayers, such as the book edited by Bishop Peter Elliott which seems to parallel the language of the Mass and the Scripture readings for the day. But there are other resources available that obviously come from liberal publishers where the prayers are geared to a "justice and peace" agenda. Lastly, the petitions should follow the suggested needs in the Missal: the Church; Civil authorities and the salvation of the world; those burdened by any kind of difficulty; the local community. Keep them simple; no more than four or five petitions. I think people lose focus when there are too many.
In the Traditional Roman Rite after the Credo, the celebrant turns to the people and sings 'Dominus Vobiscum'. He then turns to the altar and sings 'Oremus' before continuing with the Offertory. This 'Oremus' is all that remains of the former practice of introducing intercessions at this point.
In 1964 this custom was recovered for Sunday Mass. I recall that there were certain formulas, e.g for the Pope and bishops, for the Queen and the government, for the faithful departed. At Cardinal Heenan's insistence, everyone prayed the Hail Mary.
By the 1970s most parishes had dropped the prayer for the Queen, and those for the Church were otiose since the Canon was now said aloud. Increasingly, composition of these prayers was entrusted to parish worthies on 'liturgy committees' and everyone was invited to concur with their pet priorities, or reflect on the previous night's TV news. At this point they became not just tedious, but positively irritating.
Worst of all are the polyglot intercessions used in St Peter's, presumably supposed to celebrate linguistic diversity. There are too many of them, and they go on for far too long.
John, very valid points. I am not in principle opposed to the universal prayer, but I think the ones used should be official prayers in the Roman Missal and not the “examples” provided. I think it should be in the form of some kind of formal litany and short, for example: For the pope, clergy, religious and laity, we pray to the lord...
For government officials, we pray to the Lord...
For the sick, suffering and dying, we pray to the Lord...
For the happy repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray to the Lord.
For our only silent intentions. We pray to the Lord.
And then an official concluding prayer. Maybe a coupe of options but in the Roman Missal. There are no points even in the Ordinary Form of the Mass, except the Universal Prayer, where it is allowed for prayers to be made ad hoc. Heresy and politicization of these prayers abound because of this unprecedented freedom.
John Nolan,
For a short time in the US many parishes encouraged individuals in the pews to add their "intentions" before the priest said the concluding prayer for the intercessions. It did not work out well. Oftentimes there were awkward moments of silence before someone piped up with something. Sometimes no one said anything so the priest had to conclude the intercessions with out a bon mot from the members of the congregation. Did this practice happen in England?
Fr. Allan McDonald, do you remember being on retreat at Hickory Knob when, at the end of the Prayers of the Faithful, the celebrant asked, "And for whom shall we pray?" and one of our brothers prayed "For Chancery Officials who can't get off the backs of hard working pastors who are trying to build a new church building!" or words to that effect....?
Yes! I cringe each time it is open to others to add their 2 cents worth. I want to be anywhere else but Mass.
Dolan is nothing more than an oversize buffoon.
Cardinal Dolan is a very inadequate leader in New York when New York cries out for Catholic leadership. He goes along to get along with the powers that be
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