“With Your Spirit” graphic by the monks of Weston Priory, © 1980 The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.

©2007-2012 FCA Ministry.  All rights reserved.  Last page update 12/20/2010.

If the Prayers of the Faithful (General Intercessions) are “general,” then why would they refer to specific events, people or issues?

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy states that the liturgy is the “summit” toward which the Christian life is directed as well as the “fount” from which that life flows (10).  In other words, there is an intrinsic relationship between liturgy and life.  Liturgy is not the place we come to escape the world and our everyday lives.  Rather, it is the place we bring our broken lives and our broken world, our joys as well as our sorrows, to be transformed into the reign of God through the Paschal Mystery.  The Prayer of the Faithful (General Intercessions) may be the place where the connection between liturgy and life can be made most clearly.

Further, naming someone in the Prayer of the Faithful gives them a place in our consciousness.  Conversely, to fail to name someone makes them invisible—i.e., not present to us.  To name someone in liturgy, particularly in the Prayer of the Faithful (General Intercessions) is to give them a place in our assembly and a claim to our care and concern.

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