I have received a few more voicemails…
Remember, I don’t call back, but I listen to it.
- Matt of the Navy, a husband and father, left a very supportive voice mail and feed back. He is scared about the future. So am I, but we have Christ’s promises and grace to sustain us in the difficult choices we make.
- David from TX, about SCOTUS: Sorry, I didn’t understand the question.
- AW, secular Carmelite, wants the Leonine prayers after all Masses, in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms. She is writing to priests and bishops. Good for you! I agree.
- [NEW] L in Sonoma complains that the registration process for the combox of this blog includes a password requirement which is over the top. Sorry, L, but I have to have it this way in order to protect the blog from evil weirdos. I can, occasionally, rarely, help with a manual registration if people have trouble.
And I had another from John in Philly, which I may deal with in a separate post.
Concerning the Leonine Prayers, yes! Let’s have them back! I think we should reintroduce them after Mass. They take only a minute or two and they are mighty weapons in our spiritual armory. Yes, we are the Church Militant, and we should start behaving like it!
The so-called “Leonine Prayers” are not obligatory. I don’t think they are obligatory even after Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form (watch below for the “But Father! But Father! You’re wrong!” crowd to chime in). Nevertheless, I also think we need these prayers today.
Furthermore, the reintroduction of the Leonine Prayers might help in places where people instantly start to yak it up in church after the last blessing and dismissal. Let the recessional wait… or just get rid of it once in a while. How about some silence? But that’s another icthyian cauldron.
The Leonine Prayers came eventually to be associated with the conversion of Russia, but they were originally developed, over time and in stages, to help combat secular oppression of the Church.
I don’t see that Russia benefiting the world these days and no reasonable person can think that there are few attacks on the Church, or on Christians. If nothing else, we should get down on our knees and pray for Christians being murdered and martyred by Islamic terrorists.
In these USA, I would like to see the American Bishops promote the Leonine Prayers during this time when true marriage is under attack. Since the SCOTUS decision Obergefell v. Hodges has changed the laws of the lands, many enemies of the laws of nature and of nature’s God are going to try to force Catholics to violate their consciences. Secularists and their liberal catholic bed-partners will work relentlessly to drive faithful Catholic voices from the public square.
Think about it:
O God, our refuge and our strength, look down with mercy upon the people who cry to Thee; and by the intercession of the glorious and immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of Saint Joseph her spouse, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of all the saints, in Thy mercy and goodness hear our prayers for the conversion of sinners, and for the liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother Church.
There are some variations of translations, but … I ask you: Is that not a great and appropriate prayer for the challenges we are facing right now?
So, let’s pray the Leonine Prayers, on our own, if we have too. And I also suggest adding to them, as I do after every Mass, a Memorare for our bishops. I have a short list of bishops I pray for after every Mass, though you could offer it for all our bishops.
Let’s have a poll… anyone can vote.
Choose your best answer. The combox is open for those who are registered and approved.
Loading ...Wanna leave me voice mail? You have three options:
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
Since I pay a fee for the two phone numbers, USA and UK, I am glad when they get some use. I have occasionally thought about how to integrate the audio into posts, when there are good questions or comments, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
TIPS for leaving voice mail.
- Don’t shout. If you shout, your voice will be distorted and I won’t be able to understand you.
- Don’t whisper. C’mon. If you have to whisper, maybe you should be calling the police, instead.
- Come to your point right away. That helps.
I’m so pleased to see the importance of these prayers being mentioned. At my parish they are prayed with the priest after every daily Mass.
Some priests in our diocese tried to say these in the late 1990s after the NO and were actually told by the bishop of that time to stop, which they did. The bishops, apparently, would have to approve the saying of the prayers after Mass.
I hope this does happen.
voted for “after Low Mass EF/OF”. Though this is not precisely what I was going to say.
As the Leonine Prayers are about the remedy of certain concrete distresses of the (militant) Church, they feel unfitting after Masses of real festivity (and after requiems).
So, we shouldn’t have them on the Sunday, and on first- and may be second-class feasts (details to be determined), and after requiems; but as for the votive Mass of the Trinity on an unoccupied feria, we should have them even if we do sing the Missa XVI.
Dear Supertradmum, I don’t think the Leonine Prayers, being outside the actual liturgy, require the bishop’s approval (per se). However, it could perhaps be said that he can forbid them because of the obedience due to him.
As an OCDS we have the happy duty of praying part the LOH daily. More recently many, if not most, of the “Intercessions” have been causing me much consternation. Don’t think I have to go into why, at least here anyway. I recently discovered a very effective way to restore my peace during this exercise. Now, immediately after reading the “Intercessions” I follow it up by praying that entire and truly beautiful prayer which Fr Z has quoted above from Low Mass. It is so perfect and sometimes I add other petitions. This prayer just puts one in the proper posture of a humble creature to our most merciful God. And it helps me forget some of the nonsense I have just read.
We have been doing the St. Michael Prayer following the blessing at weekday Mass for 13 years. Started it shortly after I arrived. A few months ago, Bishop Tobin asked us to pray for our persecuted brethren at Sunday Mass. I added the St. Michael Prayer, and it has stuck ever since. “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Eps. 6:12
Wow! I am a 51 year-old cradle Catholic, and this is the FIRST time I’ve heard of Leonine prayers! THANK YOU, FATHER Z, for continually teaching us (especially those of us surrounded by “liberals”). I voted for “should be reintroduced after all Masses in both Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms”, by the way. I’ll ask our priests around here and see if there are any takers :-) I’m sure I’ll get the usual “eye roll”… nothing new!
Absolutely these should be reintroduced. I miss the three Hail Marys, Hail Holy Queen and the decidedly strong prayer to St. Michael. The petition that he “defend us in battle” against the “malice and snares” of Satan is one that is essential and will remain so until the end of time.
Fr. Z., I like your idea of introducing this prayer right after Mass before the yakking starts, but I don’t think it would eliminate the after-Mass chatter, only push it forward a few minutes (the time it takes to say the prayer). BTW, why have I not heard any priest calling the congregation’s attention to proper behavior before and after Mass?
Somehow it just seems better as a regular thing with everyone participating at a non-sung daily Mass. I do say it myself after most Masses of any sort. A sung EF here is usually about an hour and a half long anyway. In theory that shouldn’t make a difference, except sometimes it does when one has small children, arthritis, a cranky spouse who doesn’t really want to be there, etc.
At my parish, we pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and Saint Michael prayer together with the Priest after all of the masses. I’ve gotten accustomed to doing that so even when I go to mass somewhere else I always say those prayers after mass.
I’ve never heard this in the twenty-three years I’ve been a Catholic. But that seems to be the case with so many older bits of liturgy and ritual. If it’s after the Mass, how many people leave during the prayers?
@msc
At my parish, no one leaves during the prayers. As soon as the Priest reaches the back of the church, everyone kneels down and he begins the Our Father and the whole congregation recites it together. Sometimes when new people come to mass they’re not sure what’s happening, but they kneel down and say the prayers also.
I voted for after *every* Holy Mass — I never could figure out the rationale for forbidding people to pray.
And we are in such desperate need of prayer, too!
While not the whole Leonine prayer, Bishop Cary of Baker has instituted the St. Michael’s prayer after every Mass in his diocese.
Come off it Father. Pope Pius XI increased the indulgence for saying these prayers from 300 days to 10 years. In this egalitarian day and age you really cannot encourage people to jump the queue into Heaven by saying these prayers – pure discrimination. As our late (un?)lamented Bishop, here in A&B said, you cannot talk about salvation these days to young people.
[Even though you choose to be jocular, don’t forget that those grants of indulgence no longer apply. The present grants of indulgences are in the current Handbook of Indulgences. Indulgences are no longer granted in time increments. They are not only partial or full.]
At least one nearby parish has started saying the prayer to St. Michael after every Mass, although they haven’t yet taken to using the rest of the Leonine prayers. Visitors seem a little confused but almost everyone has heard the prayer enough to follow along with whatever slight variation they learned. Father calls that one of his “big guns” together with praying the Rosary before every Mass in the fight against sin and the devil.
When I arrived in my parish 4 years ago, the people had the custom of reciting the St. Michael prayer with the priest after every Mass. We continued this, but when ObamaCare was passed with its Madate from the HHS that all insurance policies had to pay for contraception and abortifacient procedures, Cardinal Dolan told us that the most important issue facing us was Religious Liberty, and we were asked to offer special prayers for this intention.
At that point, I figured that we should move to offering the whole of the Leonine Prayers for the Reasons that Fr. Z gave in this post. I figured why make up a new prayer when we already have one so well ready made?
We continue to do the full Leonine prayers after every Mass.