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This article presents the issue of Lenten prayers over the people (orationes super populum). The new Roman Missal of 2008 includes (as does the Missal of 2002) a greater number of these orations to accompany the Mass forms of the Lenten Season. As the Church in Poland has been awaiting the publication of this Missal in Polish for many years, the theological and historical significance of these orations, which will soon see the light of day in Polish, has been approximated. The aim of the study thus became an attempt to reach the sources of these texts while emphasising their theological value. The article has thus been divided into two thematic parts, treating in turn the theological and historical aspects of the subject under discussion. This makes it possible to see how the Church combines new and old texts in the liturgical books currently in force.