The Universal Prayer
We respond to the Good News proclaimed with the Universal Prayer, known colloquially as the General Intercessions or as the Petitions. Having heard the great things God has done for us in the Liturgy of the Word so far, we ask Him to continue to do great things in the Church and in the world. We do so through a series of prayers of petition. The prayer is universal or general because we pray for the Church community, the civic community, and the world, and not our specific personal intentions.
The Universal Prayer begins with the priest inviting the people to prayer. Then the deacon, or in his absence, a lector, leads the congregation in the particular intentions for prayer. The GIRM indicates the pattern for the intentions:
for the needs of the Church; for public authorities and the salvation of the whole world; for those burdened by any kind of difficulty; for the local community (70).
It is common to include prayers for those who have died at the end of the petitions.
I have been at some parishes where the petitions for the dead became a death notice, “For Ann Jones, who died on Thursday, and will be buried from the church on Saturday at 10 am, with calling hours at the Smith funeral home from 2-4 and 7-9.” That is not at all what these prayers are about.
The prayers are to be petitions, asking God to do great things for us. The petitioners are asking God, not telling God, or even thanking God. If a petition cannot begin with, “For…,” it probably doesn’t fit at this time. These petitions are often done in a, “For... that…” formula, but just calling to mind the intention and leaving it up to God is a legitimate, and at times laudatory, way of composing them.
The congregation responds to the petitions with an appropriate response or with silence. At Holy Spirit, we have a different response in Advent, the Christmas Season, Ordinary Time until Lent, Lent, the Easter Season, the first half of the Sundays from Pentecost until Christ the King (34th Sunday in Ordinary Time), and the second half of the Ordinary Time season.
The prayers, especially the response, are ways that the laity express their priestly character they received at baptism. The GIRM tells us,
In the Universal Prayer or Prayer of the Faithful, the people respond in some sense to the Word of God which they have received in faith and, exercising the office of their baptismal Priesthood, offer prayers to God for the salvation of all (69).
The celebrant then draws all the intentions in a prayer. I have always liked to and almost always do use the Trinitarian formula of Christian Prayer: addressing the prayer to the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit; asking the prayers to be granted if they are God’s will for us, thus allowing God to be God. In weekday Masses during Lent, I will often use the collect of the saint being commemorated to close the Universal Prayer.
That we have prayers of petition at Mass reminds us that petitionary prayer is not a “lesser” form of prayer because we are asking from God something that benefits us. In fact, we are expressing faith in God and praising Him by our petitions because in making them we express the belief that God can do something about them, which is often far beyond our capabilities. We ask God because we cannot do it ourselves, but He can! We pray to the Lord...