www.ronrolheiser.com July 11, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Theologians make an important distinction between what they call \u201cdevotional\u201d and \u201cliturgical\u201d prayer. \u201cDevotional\u201d prayer, they tell us, is private in nature and is meant to help sustain us personally on the spiritual journey. \u201cLiturgical\u201d prayer, by contrast, is public by nature, the church\u2019s prayer (not our own), is universal in scope, and is intended for the needs of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t always grasp this, to the detriment of both kinds of prayer. Perhaps we might understand this better if we put different names to these. What helps clarify things for me are the terms \u201caffective\u201d and \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer. \u201cAffective\u201d prayer refers to private prayer, prayer that\u2019s about us, focused precisely on bringing us and our feelings to God. \u201cPriestly\u201d prayer, on the other hand, is not about us, is about the world, is public in nature, and it doesn\u2019t have to be meaningful personally to be of value. But how can this be? How can prayer be of value if it isn\u2019t personally meaningful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An analogy might be helpful: Imagine you\u2019re part of a symphony orchestra, playing an instrument that contributes to an overall musical score. Night in and night out, you\u2019re playing the same piece in the same theatre, helping to create a beautiful symphony for the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public prayer of the church, priestly prayer, works exactly like that. It\u2019s a symphony intended for the benefit of everyone and open to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has a number of ramifications: First of all, it clarifies some age- old questions about who benefits from our prayer and who doesn\u2019t. Are people who have others to pray for them more lucky than those who don\u2019t? Imagine two people, both in pain and in need of prayer: The first is a very well-loved individual, part of a big and loving community, perhaps even a public figure, and he has many people praying for him. The second person isn\u2019t as lucky. She\u2019s alone, without family and friends, unknown to the world, with nobody to pray for her. Are we to believe that the first person has drawn a lucky straw and will benefit from all the prayers offered for him, while the second will languish alone, without the benefit of prayer since she has nobody to pray for her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. That\u2019s not the way prayer works, at least not the \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer of the church. It creates a symphony that\u2019s intended for everyone, includes everyone, and benefits everyone, the loved, the unloved, the lucky, and the unlucky, all equally. When a symphony is being played it\u2019s not selective or discriminatory, the music is for everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Granted, in its explicit expression, our \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer might sometimes be directed towards the needs of one particular person (\u201cLet us pray for Martha who\u2019s ill and in the hospital\u201d), but everyone, Martha included, is given the benefit of the symphony. Indeed, such an understanding of \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer should challenge us precisely to continually stretch ourselves in terms of the universal intent of our public prayer when we gather as church. Our public prayers on a Sunday are not so much intended for some individual Martha who\u2019s ill and in pain, as for the whole world in all its ills and pains, Martha and her pains included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This analogy of public prayer as a symphony sheds light on another issue as well, namely, on why our public, priestly prayer does not have to meaningful to us personally to be valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine again that you\u2019re part of an orchestra that, night in and night out, plays the same musical score. You\u2019ve played the same piece many times over and, most evenings, are bored with it. You\u2019d love, for your own stimulation, to play something else which would give you more energy. But the symphony isn\u2019t yours, isn\u2019t intended for you, and depends on many things beyond your tastes and preferences. Your participation is in function of something else. You\u2019re playing this for somebody else. So you play the same piece, night in and night out, not for your own benefit, but for the audience. You contribute your efforts to the symphony for the benefit of others, even as you yourself would prefer to be playing something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer works, it makes a symphony of prayer for the benefit of everyone. That\u2019s the intent of all Sunday services and all liturgical prayers of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What constitutes \u201cpriestly\u201d prayer? It\u2019s the public prayer of our churches, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, Services of the Word, Sunday worship. It\u2019s also the Office of the Church (the Liturgy of the Hours, the Breviary). All of these, by essence and definition, are public prayers, intended first of all not for the private nourishment of those praying them, but as a symphony of prayer for the benefit of the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next time you\u2019re at a church service and telling yourself that this isn\u2019t nurturing you, remember that the function of an orchestra is, first of all, not to entertain itself but to make music for others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
www.ronrolheiser.com July 11, 2004 Theologians make an important distinction between what they call \u201cdevotional\u201d and \u201cliturgical\u201d prayer. \u201cDevotional\u201d prayer, they tell us, is private in nature and is meant to help sustain us personally on the spiritual journey. \u201cLiturgical\u201d prayer, … Continue reading