By Randall Smith

But first a note: In today's podcast, Robert Royal and Jayd Henricks, former executive director of government relations at the USCCB and now president of Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (and its substack What We Need Now) discuss Henricks' article "The Sins of the Synod" (we link to it today in our COMMENTARY section). It's an informative introduction to the concluding session of the Synod on Synodality which begins tomorrow. Click here for the podcast.

Now for today's column...

There are many kinds of prayer. The Catechism lists vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. But we can add intercessory prayer, petitionary prayer, penitential prayer, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers where we simply try to listen in silence to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

People sometimes say that "somewhere" St. Augustine said: "He who sings prays twice." The problem is no one has ever found that "somewhere," so he likely didn't say it. But singing - chanting a psalm, for example - can also be a kind of prayer. We ask for things we need in prayer; we give thanks for gifts received in prayer; and we seek forgiveness for wrongs we have done or for things left undone.

Prayer, says the Catechism, "is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part." In this sense, the sacraments are a form of prayer. We go to Confession; we confess our sins; we receive the graces of the sacrament; and we go forth to cooperate with those graces, resolving to do better. We make prayers during Confession, "O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You…." But the whole act of confession is itself a prayer, in which we put ourselves before God and ask for forgiveness and grace.

So too, the liturgy is a form of prayer. We sometimes forget this and say things like: "Did you get a chance to pray after Mass?" or "I went early to Mass so I would have a chance to pray." It is good to pray before and after Mass, but we shouldn't forget that the Mass itself is a prayer.

As the Catechism says: "The liturgy is a participation in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal. Through the liturgy the inner man is rooted and grounded in 'the great love with which [the Father] loved us' in his beloved Son. It is the same 'marvelous work of God' that is lived and internalized by all prayer, 'at all times in the Spirit.'"

But then the question arises: If the Mass is a prayer - a participation in Christ's own prayer - what kind of prayer is it? Is it an active, vocal prayer, or is it a more silent, contemplative prayer? Or is it both?

Sometimes people try to fudge their answer, saying something like, "Being active at Mass is contemplative. People can pray contemplatively while they're belting out a hymn. You know St. Augustine said: 'When you sing, you pray twice.'" (Except he didn't.) Such people seem to think there shouldn't be even a moment of reflective silence in the whole Mass.

Keep going. Say more words. Sing another hymn, maybe two. Then go greet people. But be sure to make space in your day for quiet time to pray. When would there be time for that? Not during the Mass, it would seem. At some other time. Mass is a time to keep busy. Silence just makes people uncomfortable. So let's fill the silence with another hymn.

Or people fudge the other way and say: "If we sit here contemplatively, that is active participation. You don't have to do anything or hear the words to engage in 'active participation.'" We sit here quietly, in awe, "putting ourselves in the presence of God," letting the prayers of the Mass that we can't hear just wash over us as we pray silently and contemplate the beauty of what's being done by the priest. That's what the Church means by active participation."

Well, if the Church did mean that by "active participation," she wouldn't have made a point of requiring it (as though it wasn't happening) in a dogmatic constitution...