HELPING CREATE A SYMPHONY OF PRAYER
The public prayer of the church, what we call priestly prayer, works exactly like that. It’s a symphony intended for the benefit of everyone and open to everyone.
This has a number of ramifications: First of all, it clarifies some age-old questions about who benefits from our prayer and who doesn’t. Imagine two people, both in pain and in need of prayer: The first is a very well-loved individual, part of a big community and he has many people praying for him. The second person is alone, without family and friends with nobody to pray for her. Are we to believe that the first person has drawn a lucky straw and will benefit from all the prayers offered for him, while the second will languish alone, without the benefit of prayer since she has nobody to pray for her?
No. That’s not the way prayer works, at least not the “priestly” prayer of the church. It creates a symphony that’s intended for everyone, includes everyone, and benefits everyone, the loved, the unloved, the lucky, and the unlucky, all equally.
In its explicit expression, our “priestly” prayer might sometimes be directed towards the needs of one particular person, but everyone is given the benefit of the symphony. Our public prayers on a Sunday are not so much intended for some individual who’s ill and in pain, as for the whole world in all its ills and pains.
That’s how “priestly” prayer works, it makes a symphony of prayer for the benefit of everyone. That’s the intent of all Sunday services and all liturgical prayers of the church.
What constitutes “priestly” prayer? It’s the public prayer of our churches, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, Services of the Word, Sunday worship. It’s also the Office of the Church (the Liturgy of the Hours, the Breviary).
All of these, by essence and definition, are public prayers, intended first of all not for the private nourishment of those praying them, but as a symphony of prayer for the benefit of the whole world.
To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser
No comments:
Post a Comment