Some rituals are so simple that they pass us by!

A case is point is that we stand together when we make requests of God when we take part in the Prayer of the Faithful in the assembly.

The interesting thing to note is that it is not just a string of petitions bunched together for neatness: it is not the Prayers of the Faithful, but the Prayer.

Voicing our needs

It is part of the task of the People of God to voice its needs, the needs of the community, and the needs of humanity before God.

Voicing our needs is not the same as giving God information, nor is it equivalent to bothering God in the hope that more and more noise might move God to action!

Voicing our needs is an acknowledgement of where we are as needy creatures, a declaration of our dependence on God, and a confession that the answer to the world’s problems lies beyond creation.

An ancient practice

The curious thing is that when we exhibit our neediness, we do not grovel, nor kneel, but stand.

In this, we are following an ancient bit of ritual practice.

Jesus’ first followers saw people standing in the synagogue when praying, but they were to pray in the rooms (Mt 6:5).

However, they kept the practice of standing as somehow appropriate when addressing God.

A generation or two later, when they gathered, they still stood to pray because Mark (11:25) puts this into the mouth of Jesus: ‘whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.’

And a generation later again, another teacher wishes ‘that … intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone … and that in every place the people should pray, lifting up holy hands’ (1 Tim 2:1 and 8).

A priestly people

Standing together praying is a statement that all the baptised are the priests of the new covenant.

Every one of us, not just a special group, has been brought into the presence of God.

What falls into place

If we remind ourselves of our common priestly dignity when we gather in Christ before the Father, a few other things fall into place:

First, we appreciate that we, all the celebrants of the liturgy, the gathering is ‘wholly celebrant’ – this is how I render actuosa participatio in Vatican II – because we are a priestly people with a presbyter presiding. It is not the case that there is a priest and a people.

Second, we appreciate why reciting a prayer to Mary, the mother of Jesus, is wholly inappropriate. Mary is one with us in Christ, and we address the Father. In this priestly ministry of the Prayer of the Faithful, we stand with Mary, not before her.

Third, we are reminded of our dignity as creatures brought into being through the Logos (Jn 1:3) and made capable of standing in the divine presence through the Logos dwelling amongst us. We should see our standing as a reply to the patristic call: Christian: be aware of your dignity! We can also see the background to why the Council of Nicaea in 325 forbade kneeling on Sundays.

Fourth, our concern in this prayer should be for all humanity and the whole of creation, because we make it in union with the Christ who brings the whole creation to its completion. He is our Alpha and our Omega (Rev 21:6).

• Thomas O’Loughlin is a presbyter of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor emeritus of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK). His latest book is Discipleship and Society in the Early Churches.
• His latest book is “Shaping the Assembly: How Our Buildings form us in Worship”.