Q: At our parish we sit through the entire “Invitation to Prayer” – we don’t stand until after the words “…and the good of all his holy Church.” When people from other parishes attend our Mass they stand at the beginning: “Pray, brethren”, or at the “May the Lord accept….”. Is there an option about when to stand?
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A: I treated this in my book Let Us Pray at #501. It’s not that there’s an option – it’s that the rubric is inconsistent. At GIRM 146 and Order of Mass 29, the people stand for the response. But at GIRM 43 they stand for the invitation. Humanly speaking, it makes more sense to stand for the whole dialogue, so many parishes have opted for that.