| Question Title | Posted By | Question Date |
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| Prayer? | Konrad | Thursday, August 2, 2007 |
Question: Dear Brother, Recently I caught up with my mentor a devout Catholic layman who is the Headmaster of a school here in Western Australia. I have confided to him often, and have always been appeased by his opinion (or as he would say; "My opinion is whatever the Church's opinion is") We were discussing the the St Vincent de Paul Charity Organisation and how it has 'evolved'. He presented to me a prayer of which the charity uses now and that of St Vincent de Paul himself. It was starkly different! The charity had now used a prayer that began with "Creator" at which time my mentor taught me of a feminist push for the sign of the cross to be changed from "In the name of the Father..." to "In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit." This shocked me but it seemed really plausible. Not only this my mentor pointed out the very different usage of language. St Vincent would invoke God's mercy, grace and so on, while this contemporary prayer would speak of illusory things such as light, fragrance, love etc. On the surface of things when i first noticed the contempory prayer i didnt really see anything wrong with it. But as my principle pointed out some of the differences i had a really eye-openning experience. I am currently part of a WYD08 group in our parish preparing for our pilgrimage to Sydney. We just had a leaders meeting where someone suggested getting the participants to write their own individual prayers and sharing them. After having my experience comparing the two different prayers with my mentor I stated that it wasn't a good idea. I suggested that we should learn the Our Father in Latin so we could pray together at WYD with others from different homelands, or perhaps better understand the Hail Mary. I feel a little discomforted by own position, should i be that cynical and scupolous of prayer - if God hears every prayer? Could you include a general discussion on this matter brother. Ave Maria, Konrad |
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| Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM
Dear Konrad: Well, if anyone is using a phrase like, "In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit" they are out of line. This is an alteration proposed by liberals and feminists. Shame on anyone who uses it. As for your group, it would be wonderful to learn the Our Father and Hail Mary in Latin so that everyone may pray in unison regardless of their native language. That is one of the beautiful things about Latin -- to bring that sort of unity. Composing one's own prayers, however, is perfectly okay as long as one does so properly. "In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit" is improper. The use of vertical inclusive language (referring to God in inclusive language) of any sort is blasphemous. A good guide to writing one's own prayers is the ACTS formula: A = Adoration C = Contrition T = Thanksgiving S = Supplication (asking for something) Here is a quick example of a prayer composed according to the ACTS method, color coded to match each section as above: God is pleased with prayers composed from our own words. He is our Father, our daddy, and He wants us to talk to Him in our own words and not always from a pre-prepared script written by someone else. Talk to Him spontaneously in conversation like you do your friends, write your own prayers that come from your heart. This is good as long as we do not use prayer to advance hidden agendas or use phraseology that comes from improper agendas. God Bless,
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