Intercession Trivia& Ban Intercession Awkwardness

 Did you ever notice that the prayers of intercession in Morning Prayer are of a different character than those of Evening Prayer? If not, take a look.

In the morning, we are still aiming at starting the day off right, that is, sanctifying it, and renewing our dedication to God. So these intercessions will focus on praising divine attributes and begging for divine assistance to help us grow in holiness. It's the Evening Prayer intercessions where we will pray for the needs of others: the pope and bishops, priests, for vocations, for the poor, the sick, and (this one every single day) the dead.
This distinction between morning and evening intercessions is not hard and fast. You'll see an occasional intercession for others in morning prayer, and occasional intercessions in evening prayer related to personal holiness. Also, on some Fridays, personal repentance and conversion predominates even during Evening prayer intercessions.

More trivia. Many people who own four-volume breviaries aren't aware of an appendix of alternative, shorter intercessions that may be used in place of what is in the four week psalter.

Rubrics trivia: there are several options for how to pray the intercessions. Some are only meant for group recitation of the liturgy when one person functions as a leader. But whether in a group or private, most people try to use several options at once, as a result doing the intercessions incorrectly. To wit:

*The introductory, opening sentence of the intercessions is only meant when there is a group with a leader. If you are praying alone, you should just start with the first intercession.
*Each intercession has two parts, and a repeating, "Lord hear our prayer"-type response. You may do one of the following with these elements:
 a. in a group, the leader reads both parts of the intercessions and the group responds with the "Lord hear our prayer"-type response. OR the group leader reads the first part of the intercession and the group responds with the second part, in which case the "Lord, hear our prayer"-thing is not said by anyone!!! OR the group without a leader takes turns with the two parts of the intercessions, but  in this case, once again, no one says the "Lord hear our prayer"-response!
b. When praying alone, you just say the two parts of the intercession, and omit the "Lord hear our prayer" -thing. If you are praying with one other person, one of you may read both parts of the intercession and the other do the "Lord hear our prayer."
What is NOT correct--although it is done everywhere--is for the same person/s to say the second half of the intercession, and then aso say the Lord hear our prayer-response. It should be intuitive that it is awkward to do so (your responding to your own response--doesn't that feel odd?), but since the instructions in the ordinary don't explain how to do the intercessions, and almost no one bothers to read the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, we end up with an epidemic of Intercession Awkwardness.

I feel like a liturgical geek army of one in the Ban Intercession Awkwardness movement. But boy, it felt good to rant about this today.

How About Them Intercessions?

The home user of the Divine Office might  find the Intercession sections of Morning and Evening prayer kind of awkward. The are so clearly designed for a group divided into two "choirs", that it feels funny doing them on one's own. And funnier still  reading the two parts to each petition and then having to jump back to the repeated response (e.g.,"Lord, show us your mercy").  Furthermore, the two-part petitions are often so verbose that the tired woman reading them can lose the train of what exactly it is she is praying for.

At least, this is what I have sometimes felt. Here is some help for Intercession Discomfort Syndrome, gleaned from the General Instructions on the Liturgy of the Hours.

If you are praying by yourself, you  need not read the introductory/invitation statement (e.g. "Christ is our Savior, in joy let us cry out to him:") nor do you use the repeated response (e.g. "Lord, show us your mercy"). This is meant for public occasions when a priest or other minister is leading the congregation. Instead you just dive in to the actual petitions. Read each one.The second part of each is the "response". 

And if, like me, you would like to sometimes see some shorter, more to-the-point petitions: the Church, thoughtful Mother that she is to her ADHD children, has some  optional petitions  that are made to order. You can only find these in each volume of  the four-volume breviary.  They are only to be used at Evening Prayer. When we are too tired to follow the more flowery petitions, I guess.

Another nice suggestion from the General Instructions: "it is permissible to include particular intentions at both morning and evening prayer." So after you read what's in the book, you may pray for the particular needs of your family and friends.

All of the above make me a lot more comfortable with the Intercessions than I used to be.