Saturday, January 12, 2008

What's wrong with this prayer?

This evening I checked out a parish I've never visited before. From the bulletin I learned that January 22 is the 35th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, and "All Catholics are urged by the Diocese of Orange to participate in the Novena to End Abortion, January 13 - 22, 2008. The novena prayer is noted below in English and Spanish for your convenience." And here is the prayer in English:
Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the Resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part in ending abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the Pro-Life movement, and never to stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected, and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice not just for some, but for all.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Do you notice anything odd about this prayer? Take a few moments to think about it if you'd like...

The prayer never asks God for anything!!! The subject of every single sentence is "I"! It's just, "Dear Lord, I feel this way about abortion and I will do the following things about it. Thanks for listening." That's good as far as it goes, but for Heaven's sake, I think we could use some divine assistance on this one.

But I am really glad the Diocese of Orange is promoting a novena to end abortion and I'd encourage anyone to do it. Perhaps with a different prayer. :)

3 comments:

Heather said...

There are some worship songs out there that are like this too. I, I, I. It's highly annoying. Since when was church a place to be so self-centered?

Athanasis Contra Mundum said...

It is really easy to get wrapped with a religion of "I" and "me". I have also noticed a lot songs at Mass that do that. The ones I find the most unsettling are the ones where we sing "I" as though we are the Lord speaking.

JimAroo said...

Keen eye, Rachel! We all agree, the I's have it.