+JMJ
Dear Parishioners,
Every once in a while I will have somebody ask me what I am doing during that period of silence right after I chant “Let us pray” before the opening collect (i.e., prayer). The rubrics for the Mass instruct for a moment of silence right there. It's actually a moment for everybody in the congregation, priest included, to recollect ourselves for the sacred mysteries we are going to encounter. At that moment you might ask the Holy Spirit to help you enter into Mass more profoundly than you ever have done before. Or you might tell the Lord that you want to give him greater glory in this Mass than you have ever done before. Or you might think of a special intention for which you are offering this Mass. In other words, “Let us pray” is not a signal only for the opening collect the priest will pray aloud. It is also a call to silent, private prayer even before that opening collect is chanted.
Personally, I take that moment in silence to ask the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Michael and all the archangels, and all the guardian angels to drive from that space any evil spirits that would keep people from becoming alive in Jesus Christ. I also directly command, in the name of Jesus Christ, demons of atheism, secularism, acedia (spiritual sloth) and faithless disobedience to be gone from my parishioners wherever they are, and from within our parish boundaries, where I have responsibility as the pastor. Those are four evil spirits that I believe are at work in a very damaging way in our local culture. That's why, at least for the time being, I have felt led to use that moment of silence before the opening collect for such spiritual warfare.
I hope your Advent thus far has been rich! Have a blessed week!
In cordibus Iesu, Mariae et Iosephus,
Father Poggemeyer