For the past few days, as I have looked at the news on my computer or smartphone, my heart has sunk at the increasing number of casualties in the earthquake on the border of Syria and Turkey. As of this writing, the dead number over 20,000. Certainly, that number will rise even by the time you read this message. Needless to say, we are praying daily in Morning and Evening Prayer (and when we have Mass) for those affected. It is imperative that we do so. When we gather for public prayer, especially when we gather for Mass, we are offering not just bread and wine, and not merely our selves (souls and bodies), but we are offering the brokenness of the world to God for healing, transformation, and redemption. All of those things are placed on the Altar before God. In the Mass, we pray for God to take all of it, bless it, and give it back to us so that we and the world can be put back together again.
I have been thinking about the meaning and context of public prayer as it occurs in the Mass since I have been preparing for this week’s Pilgrims in Christ class on the Eucharist. In that preparation, I came across some words of the late liturgist Robert Taft: “the purpose of the Eucharist is not to change bread and wine, but to change you and me: through baptism and eucharist it is we who are to become Christ for one another, and a sign to the world that is yet to hear his name” [from “What Does Liturgy Do? Toward a Soteriology of Liturgical Celebration: Some Theses,” in Primary Sources of Liturgical Theology, ed. Dwight Vogel (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000), 143-44]. God always moves to change us in mysterious ways, but we must be ready and willing to be changed. Part of being changed means bringing not just parts of our selves and bodies into worship but all of it. And along with that, we bring not just money we drop in the collection plate. We bring all the concerns and needs of the world.
This is why the Prayers of the People at each Mass are not meant to be cookie-cutter prayers that eventually become meaningless through rote repetition. As a priestly people, we are obliged to add prayers for those specific needs and concerns that are rising up out of the world’s suffering, injustice, and cries of lament. To do otherwise is insensitive and neglectful of our calling. We name the devastating tragedy in Syria and Turkey in the presence of God and before his Altar, just moments before we bring the fruits of the earth to be taken, blessed, broken, and then shared as a sacramental sign of our interconnectedness with one another. We add prayers for an end to the hideous gun violence that seems never to stop. We pray for those individuals dear to our hearts. All of it needs to be brought before God and not simply captured in large, sweeping swathes of language. We need to be specific so that we can be specific about how we need to be changed by God.
There are moments in preparing the Sunday leaflets when I have to remind myself that I am not doing inconsequential work. There is a certain tedium in making sure the prayer list is up to date, but a reality check usually reminds me that it should be no tedium at all. It is prayerful work. The time and energy spent in keeping our prayer lists relevant and up-to-date, and the naming of all people in need at the Daily Office is the foundation of what it means for us to be a Christian people, a priestly people, always at prayer, interceding on behalf of the world before God’s throne.
If you have gotten in the habit of glossing over the prayer lists in our Sunday leaflets, look at them afresh. We pray through a parish cycle of prayer for parishioners and friends of the parish; your name is probably on that list, and if not, we’d love to add it! Just let me know. We pray for churches in the diocese and dioceses throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion. One of my favorite prayers is for those whom we do not yet know but whom God will bring to this parish to know and love our Lord. That is a pure prayer of submission. We can’t control those people we don’t yet know! Only God will send them here. Look around and notice whom God has sent here.
If you have petitions or names of people you would like to appear on our prayer list, please email Chris Wittrock at office@goodshepherdrosemont.com. Consider incorporating these intentions into your own daily habits of prayer. There is nothing more important we can do than this priestly work. And please pray for the people in Syria and Turkey. If you wish to make a donation to relief efforts through Episcopal Relief and Development, you can do so here. And when you come to Mass each Sunday, bring all that troubles and gives joy to your hearts. Don’t leave anything out. Bring it all, and place it on the Altar.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle