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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1987)
Supplement to The Georgia Bulletin, February 12, 1987 □ Faith Toda A supplement to Catholic newspapers, published with grant assistance from Cath olic Church Extension Society, by the Na tional Catholic News Service, 1312 Massa chusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. All contents copyright ® 1987 by NC News Service. By Margaret O’Brien Steinfels NC News Service E arly on in my school career — probably sec ond grade — I was told by my Lutheran playmate that her family went to church to pray. As a recent first communicant, I knew- Catholics went to church to receive Com munion. Our ecumenical dialogue ended on that quasi-factual note. I have since learned that Lutherans receive Communion and that Catholics pray. Still at some level I function with the theology I learned at 7. At non-eucharistic liturgies or prayer services, I feel that with nothing to eat and nothing to drink this is not a very interesting celebration. On the other hand, eating and drinking without conversation is equally dismal. What difference does it moke that people assemble for Mass? Of course the heart of the celebration is the Eucharist, writes Margaret O'Brien Steinfels. But the Mass, through the Prayers of the Faithful, also provides a way for people to speak and listen to one another. In fact, she says, it "may be the only place in our culture where men and women can publicly express sadness and feelings of helplessness in the face of suffering, and where the rest of us can join in their prayer.” The Eucharist is the heart of our Sunday celebration, the reason we assemble for Mass. But like all human gatherings, there must be a way for us to talk to each other and to talk to God. We greet one another; we hear the word of God and we respond; we sing; we of fer one another a sign of peace. And there is a place in the Mass where we may speak and listen to one another. Over the last year its importance has been forcefully brought home to me. The Prayers of the Faithful at our Sunday Mass are often exten sive. People are not shy; they speak up and they pray. Many, through their work or neighborhood contacts, know or frequently see the poor, the homeless, families having a hard time keeping their lives together. So we pray for the poor and the vulnerable, for those who have few resources material or spiritual. Some of my fellow worshipers seem to know many sick and dy ing people who need our prayers. We pray for them. We also pray for the church and for govern ment officials and for peace in Nicaragua and Northern Ireland and in places most of us have never heard of. And we pray for our own community. Sometimes there are prayers of thanksgiving and appreciation but The evening news was never like this! usually it is prayers for the hopeless and the helpless. Sometimes these prayers go on for a long time. Some Sundays there seems to be no end: What sounds like it might be the last “Lord, hear our prayer,” is fol lowed by another and another. Can there be so many dire cases? Do they all need public prayers? For a long time I found our lengthy laments excessive. But now I think I've changed my mind. What each one brings to our Sunday gathering and says in the form of a prayer is part of the conversation among us and with God. There are people and events that burden our hearts; we need to say what they are. This past year there were several deaths among people who came to our Sunday Mass. Prayers over our loss and remembrances of the dead, their families and friends, have been part of our Sunday celebrations. These were not anonymous names or unknown faces but people who had been there Sunday after Sun day. Even if it was only a nodding acquaintance that most of us had. they were part of our community and their absence was felt. These new names added to our prayers made me realize how uni que the Prayer of the Faithful is. Our prayers and the Mass in which they are embedded may be the only place in our culture where men and women can publicly express sadness and feel ings of helplessness in the face of suffering, and where the rest of us can join in their prayer. Reports on the evening news of death and carnage, child abuse and homelessness seem only to in crease the bland seriousness of news commentators. It is un professional to express strong emotions, whether of sorrow or outrage, in public. In insurance companies and welfare offices, in operating rooms and on construction sites, wherever we work we must restrict ourselves to modest ex pressions of what we feel when a crisis hits, when a neighbor dies or illness strikes a co-worker, when our patient has an acute at tack of a chronic mental illness, or when a client-family falls apart. There is cause to be sad and to weep. We need to pray for com fort and compassion. We need to say: “Let us pray to the Lord.” The Mass is the place where we can do that together. (Mrs. Steinfels is editor of Church magazine.)
