When it comes to the Prayers of the Faithful, specifically, the parts where we pray for the sick and the deceased, there are two kinds of people: Those who prefer to pray silently for those in their lives and maybe a nod along the lines of “and those listed in our parish book of remembrance/intentions”… and those who think the more the merrier when it comes to reading actual names out loud.
I definitely fall into the latter category, as do my friends at the Simbang Gabi 5 a.m. Mass novena at my parish.
I write the prayers for the nine days a couple of days in advance. I refresh myself on what’s happened in the Philippines in the past year… natural disasters and tragedies, but also joy spots, such as the naming of a new cardinal in Manila and the canonization of a Filipino martyr. The opening petitions generally get shorter as the week progresses, because I know those prayers for the sick and deceased are going to grow and grow.
We start out with the people who give my friend Litong names in time to be published in our missalette. Then, Litong and I get a few more via e-mail between the time the missalette goes to the printer and the beginning of the novena. Then comes my favorite part: old friends and new finding “the Prayers of the Faithful lady” before Mass begins each morning to add other names.
This morning, I had the privilege of listening to a man near tears talk about his sister’s death, in bed, the day before, in another country. My friend the doctor added some patients. One man came to ask me who had added someone to the prayers of the sick, because he knew the name and wanted to know more about what was wrong. I was able to connect them.
To give you an idea of the number of lives I am blessed to glimpse into at this time of year, when the missalette was printed, we to pray this morning for no one who was sick and for four people who were deceased. The actual total when prayers began were eight people who were sick and thirty-eight who had died.
Yes, it took time. And the comfort and peace and healing it brought to concerned and grieving friends and relatives made it worth every second–and then some.
