Priests are often asked to remember a particular intention in their prayers. When people do this, I always say a Hail Mary there and then if possible and try to include such prayers in the general intention of saying the Divine Office. But people do like to be remembered "at the altar". I have a little book Clericus Devotus which I found in an old prie-dieu at school years ago and was allowed to keep. It belonged to a priest who had died: inside, it is inscribed in pencil "Rev W Evans, Ist Infantry Brigade, 1st Division BEF". Inside the rear cover, the Leonine Prayers (the prayers said after Low Mass) are written in pencil - the book was published in 1910 and I suppose the editors had not got round to including this relatively recent innovation.It is a wonderful vademecum with prayers in preparation and thanksgiving for Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, various prayers for priests, schemes of devotional morning and night prayers, and short meditations, especially on the last things.
One idea from the book which I try to use each day is the suggestions for the memento of the living and the memento of the dead. These are the parts of the Roman Canon where the priest pauses briefly. Here is my own translation:
If he intends to pray for many people, and so that it should not delay those attending, the celebrant can also set out in his mind all those, living and dead, for who he intends to pray in the Mass and (in the Canon at each memento) generally, in the one context, make commemoration of them. (Missale Romanum, Ritus celebr. Miss. VIII, 3).There is finally a reminder for the priest to apply the actual Mass intention which he should do according to the intention of the donor, even if it has been specified: in that way, the donor's particular intention can be honoured. As I can almost feel the questions that will come into the combox, I will do a further post on Mass intentions and the fruits of the Mass.
Memento vivorum (memento of the living)
1. Lord, remember me (here the priest mentions the graces and benefits which he intends to obtain through the holy sacrifice).
2. Remember my relatives and living friends (here can be mentioned the father, mother, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends of the priest).
3. All superiors and benefactors of both spiritual and temporal goods.
4. All those committed to me in general and in particular.
5. All priests and ministers of the Church.
6. All my enemies and those to whom I have been an occasion of sin.
7. All heretics and the unfaithful, for their conversion.
8. All the sinners of the whole world who are now in agony and will die today.
Pius X conceded an indulgence of 100 days to all priests who had this commemoration at the Memento (S. Congr. Ind., 10 Dec 1907). Further, His Holiness commends this pious custom to us by his own example.
9. All those who have commended themselves to my prayers, and all those for whom You will and know that I ought to pray.
Memento mortuorum (memento of the dead)
1. Remember also, O Lord, the souls of my deceased relatives and friends (they are mentioned as above).
2. My superiors and benefactors
3. The priests and ministers of the Church
4. Those to whom I have been an occasion of sin.
5. Those who have been commended to my prayers.
6. Those who have died an unprovided death.
7. Finally those for whom I am bound and for whom You wish me to pray, and those for whom there is no special remembrance.
7 comments:
Father,
Thanks for providing this. We lay people often wonder how to handle the many prayer intentions we have.
This gives me ideas during the Mass, and even when I start my day, or pray my Divine Office.
Cardinal Newman had a little verse he used to recite, apparently - I can't find it now, but if you have Ian Kerr's biography of Newman it's in there somewhere. Something along the lines of "All the fathers, all the brothers, and our novices and scholars, tumpty tumpty ...". And St Charles of Mount Argus "when he said Mass at the Magdalene altar [because of his ecstasies during the celebration of Mass he was rarely assigned to the scheduled Masses] he would take all these bits of paper out of hsi pocket and put them on the altar in front of him. ... there were letters he had reeived from people asking for prayers, or little notes pople had handedd him requesting that he remember someone at Mass, or names he had written down of people he had promised to pray for. And when he came to [...for whom we now pray...] he would stop what he was doing and go through all his bits of paper: all the letters and notes and little petitions that people had given him."
(homily by Fr Paul Francis Spencer CP, published in "Herald of Hope - Reflections on the Life and Spirit of Saint Charles of Mount Argus", Ovada Books, Glasgow 2007)
Father, thank you for both this post and the one following. In particular, I am thinking of printing out your translation to stick in my Missal.
Oh Fr Tim! You're SO Catholic! lol
You may be interested in the Sarum take on this. The Sarum missal actually builds into the rubrics some directions for the Memento of the living, thus:
Hic oret pro vivis.
Meménto, Dómine, famulórum famularúmque tuárum N.
et N.
In qua oratione, ordo debet attendi propter ordinem charitatis. Quinquies orat sacerdos.
Primo pro seipso,
Secundo pro patre et matre, carnali et spirituali, et pro aliis parentibus.
Tertio pro amicis specialibus, parrochianis et aliis.
Quarto pro omnibus astantibus.
Quinto pro omni populo Christiano, et potest hic sacerdos omnes suos amicos Deo commendare.
I love that. There are no similar directions, though, at the Memento of the dead.
Ever since my conversion in 1964 a Trappist priest friend who was 57 at the time and is 100 now has been remembering me at the altar by name daily, and my wife, son and daughter as they have appeared in my life. What he actually says is "L,B,D and S"
Naturally, I have tried to pass this on so to speak by remembering a number of people in my prayers every day, but eventually the list becomes so long that I skip saying it for lack of time and wind up rehearsing it once a week or so and saying simply "for all my usual intentions" the rest of the time. Either way seems unsatisfactory, really.
I remember seeing a photo of JPII kneeling in his chapel holding in one hand a wad of correspondence and lifting it up to the Lord. What else could he do? He would have been there all day otherwise reading off the names of people who had asked for his prayers.
So, naturally I think of doing something similar, such as typing out the list of names and offering it daily before the Lord in similar fashion. This is probably a question without a definitive answer, but I would be interested in any scriptural, patristic, sacerdotal solutions, or what various saints and holy persons may have done to remind the Lord daily of specific persons without actually taking the time to run through their names verbally.
Moreover, it seems that going through their names every day subjects the Lord to a certain amount of tedium and perhaps is even a sign of lack of faith, as if he would not remember. What would a good, human father say in such a situation? Something like, "Right. Well didn't we go through all of those names just yesterday? Give it a rest. Of course I'll remember them."
Then-to counter the above- there is the actual scriptural example of Moses dropping his arms and the battle going badly for the Israelites..
Any help you or your commenters may have to offer would be greatly appreciated.
Good advice from that booklet, Father. While priests particularly at Mass (and all of us in general) want to ensure they remember all who have requested or need remembrance, undue scupulosity should also be avoided.
God knows our hearts and if we happen not to mention 'Aunt Mary' by name - but have her in intention - God will not forget. An adjunct I have always used after specific mentions is "...and for all who have asked me to pray for them or for whom I am in duty bound to pray..."
That would appear to 'cover all the bases' - so to speak...
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