The Constitution on the Liturgy approved by the Second Vatican Council restored “the common prayer” or “the prayer of the faithful.” “By this prayer,” cites Sacrosanctum Concilium, “intercession will be made for the Holy Church, for the civil authorities, for those oppressed by various needs, for all mankind, and for the salvation of the entire world.”
A minority of authors writing prayers of the faithful for parishes, however, have sought to introduce in the liturgy reference to prayers with a focus on secular celebrations, some of which have traditionally been associated with politics or continue to lack that “authentic universality” required by Catholic worship.
Examples of this include a prayer for “the struggle of women’s rights” in the first or second week of March to mark International Women’s Day, or prayers for “struggle for justice and equality” during NAIDOC Week or even an intercession “to be who they are while facing rejection of the church” for LGBTQ people, to mention a few.
Some rules about Prayer of the Faithful are found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Firstly, they are offered “to God for the salvation of all,” hence should not be aimed at a specific class of people.
Secondly, the intentions announced “should be sober, be composed with a wise liberty and in few words, and they should be expressive of the prayer of the entire community.”
Obviously, with respect to this second aspect, it would be impractical to ask the faithful coming to Mass every Sunday what they should pray for. Precisely because of their “universality”, the intercessions are “for the salvation of the whole world” and should reflect this character.
As it is the case when it comes to liturgy, the laws of the Church are flooded with ambiguity. The General Introduction to the Lectionary adds that prayers of the faithful can be offered “for special categories of people,” perhaps justifying the choice of some sensitivities aligned with secular or civil celebrations and contradicting the express desires of the Council Fathers at Vatican II that such intercessions be “general” in the true sense.
In his recent Apostolic Letter titled “Desiderio Desideravi,” on the liturgical formation of the People of God, Pope Francis observed that words in the liturgy “are not the explanation of an ideal that we seek to let inspire us, but they are instead an action that engages the body in its entirety, that is to say, in its being a unity of body and soul.”
If only we truly understood this and made our liturgy into an uninterrupted invocation to God in His house, rather than an opportunity to advance political vindications from the ambo.
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