Facing the 'Battle' of Prayer in the Liturgy

Part II: Liturgical Prayer

Liturgy does use elements of things we are accustomed to watch as an audience. It has music, sometimes performed by soloists or choirs. It has motion, a kind of choreography, even without specific liturgical dance. It has words spoken by readers and preachers, prayers read by a presiding priest. It has "scenery," the church environment and decorations. It is tempting for us to sit back and expect to enjoy this thing that others are staging for our entertainment or edification, and then applaud or criticize, depending on how well we were served.

Liturgy is what the opera composer Richard Wagner called a Gesamtkunstwerk, a work of art using all the arts; but it is more than that. It is sacramental. In the midst of what we see and hear and say is something invisible, intangible, mysterious: the presence of Jesus Christ. All of the elements of liturgy are employed to draw us into that mystery. Even those elements of liturgy performed by others should make us actors. They should enable us to pray together, to hear the Word of God, to offer ourselves in union with the unseen action of Christ's sacrifice, to grow in communion with the Lord and each other by receiving Christ's body and blood, to move out from the church as a community of service to the world.

It is very difficult to do what is needed to accomplish this result. So many things can go wrong. So many distractions are built in. We should not be surprised or discouraged by having to face "the battle of liturgical prayer." We need to become aware of the strategies which will enable us to get beyond the obstacles.

Even the most brilliant or classic advice cannot alone improve our prayer. Prayer, says the Catechism, "is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part" (#2725). Our best efforts will always fall short before the great mysteries we approach in prayer. Yet even in our poorest attempts, the Lord does not abandon us to ourselves. The Spirit prays for us in our need, says St. Paul. Thus in humility and in hope we can say: Lord, teach us to pray the liturgy.