Asking or Telling God?

From Sacred Miscellany:



"What are we asking for? Another liturgical ephiphany this morning during the "Prayer of the Faithful" I noticed that a great many of the prayers involved telling God what other people should do -- international leaders, local government officials, "our parish community" (whoever that's supposed to be), etc.



This was an unfortunate contrast to the litanies of the Eastern Church. There you ask for peace, good weather, foregivness of sins, a happy (and not too violent) death. You also ask God to watch over various people, but you don't get specific about how He should influence him. "



A side note...the editor of my book The Power of the Cross entered "faith community" to replace certian references I had to the church. I changed all of these back to my original. I despise the word "faith community" because it is totally horizontal. The Church Militant may be a faith community but part of the Church lives in glory. Those catechized in the past thirty years tend to view the church as just "us" and forget that the Body of Christ is made up of the Son of God among others both visible and invisible when we gather. Blame church architecture and design for cutting out two-thirds of the Church, who at least used to be there artistically to remind us that it isn't just about us!