Mark Roberts—one of my favorite pastor-scholars—considers why we don’t pray for the realm of commerce:
I’ve been participating in church worship services for fifty years. I’ve heard or offered thousands of prayers in the context of congregational worship. Yet I cannot remember either hearing or offering a prayer that focused on – or even mentioned – business. In my pastoral prayers at [Irvine Presbyterian], I would regularly intercede on behalf of government officials, members of the military, teachers, police officers, firefighters, parents, grandparents, pastors, churches, and mission partners. But I cannot remember offering prayers for bankers, lawyers, realtors, salespeople, and the like. Nor can I recall praying for business institutions: banks, law firms, corporations, small business, brokerage firms, etc. This seems especially odd to me now, given the fact that the majority of working people in my church were in business settings such as those I just mentioned. Why didn’t I pray for them in the activity that took up so much of their time and meant so much to their lives? Why didn’t I pray for the companies they worked for or, in many cases, owned?
May 11th, 2010 | 9:49 am
[I also submitted this to the Roberts site.]
There is a book by Jane Jacobs that examines the radical difference between two primary, and contradictory, ethical systems at work in most of our lives :Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics, summarized here. It should be said that the Gospel (as I see it, anyway) is not locked into one or the other (“transaction” oriented or “honor & clout” oriented); but most of our thinking is, with many unacknowledged biases and distortions.
May 11th, 2010 | 2:37 pm
[...] Joe Carter writes, “… I cannot remember either hearing or offering a prayer that focused on – or even mentioned – business.” Why Don’t We Pray For Business? [...]
May 11th, 2010 | 7:55 pm
I’ve also noticed that, while there are many prayers at church for the sick, the poor, the unemployed, priests and nuns, the elderly, addicts, and even young people taking exams, and almost every other victim-class under the sun, I have never heard a prayer for the middle-aged working stiff who pays the bills for families and, yes, churches. That can’t be because the clergy think such people have no problems. Whatever the explanation, though, I’m sure it’s what also explains why there are never any prayers for “business.”
May 11th, 2010 | 11:18 pm
For Catholics, there is a fourfold designation of people for whom to pray at Mass: the Church, the government, the needy, and the local community. Often the sick and the dead are included: the former because they request it, and the latter because the lion’s share of Mass intentions are offered for them.
I have heard prayers for military and civil servants who risk life and limb. Again, usually because people have asked, usually loved ones.
In rural Iowa, I have heard prayers for all sorts of people who work in agriculture. Ditto nurses and doctors, politicians, teachers, school personnel, and even athletes and celebrities.
As for people for whom I’ve never heard intercessions, yes that would include bankers, lawyers, and salespeople, but also musicians, artists, and architects.
I suspect some professions don’t get prayed for because they aren’t associated with the traditional prayers of the Church. More illustrative would be to suggest your parish pray for these at Sunday Mass and note the reaction.
May 12th, 2010 | 12:09 am
I imagine the reason for this dichotomy is that those offering the prayers understand that “government officials, members of the military, teachers, police officers, firefighters, parents, grandparents, pastors, churches, and mission partners” represent the helping professions (family relations, etc.) that are (supposed to be) there primarily to serve others, whereas “banks, law firms, corporations, small business[es], brokerage firms, etc.” represent the for-profit professions that are there primarily to help themselves. I realize this is a bit of a caricature (hence the qualifications), but I think it does lend at least some justification (other things being equal) to the practice.
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