The Mass after the Second Vatican Council restored a time of prayer found in Masses of the earlier Church “so that petitions will be offered for the holy Church, for civil authorities, for those weighed down by various needs, for all men and women, and for the salvation of the whole world.” General Instruction of the Roman Missal #69. These intercessions are offered after we recite the Creed at the end of the Liturgy of the Word. It is called the Universal Prayer. It has often been referred to as the Prayer of the Faithful. This name indicates that the Catechumens had been dismissed from the Mass and only the baptized (the Faithful) remained.
I cannot imagine a Mass without these prayers today though I looked back in my St Joseph Missal and see that they were not in the Mass I experienced as a child. Of course, the history is complex as different customs occurred in different cities, but we know that these prayers were dropped from the Roman Mass long before Vatican II.
The petitions we offer today are termed “universal” because we are not just praying for personal or even regional subjects. We are part of a universal Church, and we are looking at the needs of the whole world. I can remember in the early days after the Council, at daily Masses, people were encouraged to offer petitions out loud for their needs. This practice could be meaningful for participants, but it also had some drawbacks. It was sometimes difficult to hear everyone without microphones. Some petitions became wars of ideology when two people prayed for opposite outcomes such as who should win an election. Some people included too much information when praying for physical or mental healing – there were no issues too private. This custom did not make its way to Sunday gatherings which I think was the sensible choice.
I think most parishes today do a good job of writing the intercessions to include local, universal, and timely issues. I prefer when they are short and to the point. A long petition suffers from the possibility of losing track of the focal point before reaching the end. There is also a danger of being too specific in telling people what they SHOULD do or in telling God what to do so that we don’t have to do anything. It is easy to pray for people; it is more difficult to choose an action that helps someone.
My petition for all of us from Sunday’s First Reading: May God grant us an understanding heart in our relationships and the wisdom to distinguish right from wrong. 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time; 1 Kings 3:9.