Is it right for the Church to tell me how to Pray?

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I was recently looking through various catholic blogs and getting more and more angry ( these blogs do nothing for my blood pressure.) They were basically telling the reader that there was no other way to pray than the traditional rite. This both angers me and upsets me. Now i quite enjoy the traditional Mass in fact on my holidays when I get the chance I go to Brompton Oratory for Mass. I find it both uplifting and reunites with me the sense of the sacred. I feel that it is an important aspect of the Church to keep alive this tradition with the plain chant and the Latin. These churches and I can think of a number of them around the country have a rich tradition of music and worship. On the whole the people that have go to these Churches have lived with this tradition for most of their lives. IT would be a scandal to change the worship in these places.

There is as I have said a time and a place for this and we have had it here in the parish and many people have enjoyed it. BUT this form of worship and liturgy is not in every ones experience. Everyone's spirituality is very different and in fact changes as we grow in the Lord and mature. I would be very worried if one person never changed in their relationship with the Lord over the years of prayer.
 
As a Church and especially as an ordained minster of the Church I have no right to dictate to anyone how they should pray. The priest and the Church should help and enable others to come to God and help them develop their own prayer life.
 
So how should I develop my prayer life? Can I suggest a good way is to learn to be silent. This can be done in various different ways. Sometimes I listen to a song that leads me into silence or piece of Scripture. Sometimes though I like saying the Rosary and they leads me into silence. Sometimes its going into the Church in front of the Blessed sacrament just being and not saying anything at all. There are many ways into the silence of God's love and we need to find our own way there.
 
I am also aware that there are sometimes when I want to praise God in song and not in silence. This is also good and important. There is no right or wrong in prayer as long as we re praying.

So I urge you to pray and pray in the way you want to. Do not let others tell you how you should pray. Its praying that important and building that relationship with God who is love.

 

Comments

Anne from Bognor said…
I have found that there are people wanting to tell me how to do everything spiritual and temporal, in and out of the church. I suspect we all do it in regards to some aspect of our lives. When a person finds something to be 'perfect' or the 'best thing ever' they want everyone else to feel it too, hence do what I say. They know the answer to everything and expect everyone to agree. As a very wise priest once told me ( maybe not in these exact words) if something annoys me look to myself and I will find something I need to change. Oh and by the way I actually do know the answer to everything............JESUS!
7 September 2013 at 12:50
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