Q: Curious to know: At a Sunday liturgy, is it permitted for the deacon or lector to say each petition, pausing for a slight pause after each petition (so as to encourage the laity to pray for that) and then after the last petition the lector in a collective fashion says: “We pray to the Lord”, with the congregational response as usual: “Lord hear our prayer”.
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A: Yes, it may be done that way. I’ve also heard it effectively when the people still respond to each petition, but the person listing them pauses after reading the intention and before, “We pray to the Lord.” That silence can be quite effective.
GIRM 71 says this: “The people, for their part, stand and give expression to their prayer either by an invocation said in common after each intention or by praying in silence.”