Public or Private Prayer?
We can divide prayer into many forms and methods. One distinction is to talk about public and private prayer. I remember learning as a child that I should pray on a daily basis, and that a good way to remember to pray is to talk to God first thing when I got up, praising God and putting my day into God’s care. And that I should pray at night, thanking God for the day and asking for help where needed. This kind of prayer in my own words is private prayer. I could also use prayers that I have learned such as the Lord’s Prayer or the Rosary. The small missal that I owned (every Catholic had one in those days) had many prayers that I could use in this private prayer time with God.
I have been more or less faithful to daily prayer over the years, but I do realize now that it is imperative that I speak with God from my heart on a daily basis.
The Mass includes some time for private prayer, but the Mass itself is not private. The Mass is public prayer done with a community of believers. When I agree to participate as fully as I can at a Mass, I am giving my attention to each part of the Mass, learning from it, and giving God thanks and praise. I am doing all actions of the Mass with others: praying, singing, responding, processing, listening, standing, sitting, kneeling, shaking hands, partaking, eating, and drinking. I am contributing my part as a member of the Body of Christ.
Some people did not like the changes in the Mass brought about by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. We went from a mostly quiet, meditative Mass to one with lots of singing and what felt like more active participation. In grade school, we prayed our private prayers during most of the Mass. Mass was an occasion to speak with God about our interior thoughts and desires. I heard a speaker once refer to it as each one of us talking to God on a personal telephone.
Mass is public and communal, not private prayer out loud. We answer “Amen” to a shared prayer, and we receive the Word of God and the Body and Blood of God as one people. We need private prayer time outside of Mass. We need prayer in common at Mass.