"Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant, utter before you this day." (1 Kings 8:28)

The Liturgy of the Word is brought to a close with the Prayer of the Faithful (or General Intercessions). This has been the case since the earliest days of the Church. In those times the celebration of the Eucharist did not always follow the Liturgy of the Word.

A good example of the emphasis the ancient Church placed on the General Intercessions would best be shown through the Good Friday petitions.

The Church has been clear in her insistence that the Prayers of the Faithful be revived and renewed to include the form and order of the ancient rites. In our modern times, and taking into account this ancient prayer form, we have seen their tremendous pastoral value... even though some parishes have yet to discover an ascetic understanding of BALANCE.

Some parishes, in their noble desire to be inclusive, have overextended this ritual to be very "people-specific," naming name upon name of individual sick members and dead members of the parish community. While understandable, this undermines the UNIVERSAL nature of the prayer and becomes, at best, tiring to have to listen to the entire presentation.

The Petitions should follow a set form of a heirarchy of order. First the prayers should be for the Church, her Holy Father, and the bishop and priests, followed by prayers for the world (peace for example), the government, the city, the sick, poor, needy, the dead, forgiveness....

Special care should be taken not to allow the prayers to become disjointed, or the petition's response to be overly wordy or difficult to remember.

The most important thing to remember is that our participation is

as an individual bringing ourselves, in suplication and petition, into the larger community.