Liturgical prayers in the daily missal and the liturgy of the hours -- from the tradition of the ancient Catholic Church -- have started jumping at me lately. They suddenly seem to me to be great opportunities for non-Catholic Christians to better understand the Catholic faith. There is too much distrust of what Catholic apologists say for too many Protestants. I've encoutered this firsthand a few times, when I simply could not get through. So I think I'll start noting down what the liturgy of the Catholic Church has to say for the Church.
In this week's weekday celebrations of Mass, the opening prayer is short, sweet, and sure to raise Protestant eyebrows:
Let us pray that the gospel may be our rule of life.
God our Father, your light of truth leads us to the way of Christ.
May it guide us to always reject what is contrary to the gospel.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Of course, there are many who are not only non-Catholic Christians, but are staunchly anti-Catholic Protestants, and such excerpts will do nothing but be an occasion for conspiracy theories about deceptions and duplicity. But perhaps I can find at least one or two who are willing to examine the Catholic Church from the inside -- right at the heart of her prayer.
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