One of the things I appreciate the most about attending large Catholic conferences, like Amazing Parish, is when hundreds or thousands of Catholics worship en masse, reciting prayers together. The room reverberates with the power of the words – not just the sound and meaning of the syllables and sentences, but the power of the breath and cadence that produces a unified feeling that our faith is so much bigger than our own beliefs and what resides in our own hearts. We are reminded that we have a faith formed and reliant on community.
The Sunday after returning from Houston, when our congregation stood after the homily, I felt that same sensation. We all began with the words, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth…” The hundreds of us produced that same unified commitment to our faith and to each other. We all may be saying, “I believe,” but shoulder to shoulder our ‘I’s become ‘We’s and God is blessing our faithfulness as a community. Of course, it is important to pray and meditate alone as well, but Jesus did not design a Church for individuals; He created one where members would gather regularly and energize each other until the end of time.
I have also been noticing how many people can pray along with the Latin prayers scattered through the liturgy these days, and O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo in Benediction. Many of us never learned Latin in school, but exposure in our services is teaching us to unite our voices not only with our modern-day brothers and sisters in Brewster and Patterson, but also two thousand years of unified Catholics praying in their churches around the world.
As a faith community of Catholics at St. Lawrence and Sacred Heart, let us speak out our common prayers boldly in Mass, not quietly under our breath or in our minds. Let us energize each other so that we not only hear the faith-filled words of our fellow parishioners, but feel them as they bounce off the floors, walls, and into our hearts.
Escritura: Read Acts 4:31. What stands out?
Llamamiento a la acción: Let us say our prayers loud and clear so that beyond our church walls neighbors walking their dogs and watering their flowers know that we are a community of people united in prayer.
