THE MISSAL’S NEW TRANSLATION

 [THE STARTING AND THE ENDING OF CATHOLIC MASS]

PRAYERS ECHOING THE REALITY ABOUT US

1.    “THE LORD BE WITH YOU”   “AND WITH YOUR SPIRIT.” 

The prayer phrase of “And with your spirit”  does acknowledge that the exchange is the start of our holy rites, and not just a social “hello” or “how are you?” or “what’s up?” exchange.     (You’ll note how the priest is instructed to not say something like ‘how are you doin’?’  at the start of Mass, but to begin a sacred dialogue of prayer.)     The priest says:  “The Lord be with you.”    Or the priest can say a longer greeting, such as “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” See Phillippians 1:1-2  

The priest does not say to the people:  “The Lord be with your spirit.”   One reason is because he is distinctly in a different role, as God’s chosen minister in this Mass.  As all Mass-goers know, the congregation needs this validly-ordained Catholic priest to preside over the Sacred Liturgy, as he alone can consecrate the gifts, via his Holy Orders, and he is designated to act in Persona Christi (the Person of Christ) –just so that the High Priest Christ Jesus can use him as His special instrument.   (If a priest is not present to a Sunday or weekday gathering of Catholics at the altar, then those gathered may have a “Communion Service” —if there are Eucharist-hosts to distribute.)      

In  Holy Mass, Jesus brings His Real Presence among us, to His Body of believers, and He uses His chosen signs to manifest that Presence.   A priest is one of those signs.   As the priest greets the church, their response is “And with your spirit” to designate an exchange that is spiritual (with your spirit) and in the context of speaking back to the priest who will be the Presider, their sign of Christ there. Christ the Priest is sacramentally present (in Holy Orders via the priest).    This sacrament helps us to “see” Christ as among us; Christ Jesus is The Priest Who has come to our assembly—giving His first manifestation through the presider, His given instrument-vessel to do His work.   So, the congregants will respond: “And with your spirit” each time the clergyman greets them.    A deacon also manifests Holy Orders; thus in the Gospel proclamation, whether made by a priest or deacon, the congregants also say:  “And with your spirit”  after the address:  “The Lord be with you.”

  Mass also is dismissed with this same exchange,  (“The Lord be with you.” “And with your spirit”) as the holy rite is book-ended by the address.   

“The Lord be with you” address by the presider is in the model of how the apostle-priests did the same.   For example, see below how the priest’s greeting copies the way that Paul’s epistles open up some of his epistles.

 Bishop-apostle Paul addresses the Galatian church:    Grace to you and peace from God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God and Father!      (Galatians 1)   

He addresses the Colossae church:   Grace to you and peace from God our Father… Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light… (even) transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption of our sins!  (Colossians 1)

 He addresses the Thessalonica church:   May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.   He Who calls you is faithful, and He will doit… the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you!   (Thessalonians 1)  

He addresses the Roman church:   “(You) who are called to be saints:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”

In each of the above examples, as well as to Corinth and Philippi and Ephesus, Paul is speaking (writing—in this case) from his place in ministry to the beloved church.    These are not just common words of address in these letters, but ones packed with spiritual meaning of the apostle building up and encouraging the body of believers, communicating to them in his Holy Orders.  In Romans 1, he explicitly states it, saying:   I, Paul, of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, set apart…”     

And, so, as a priest or bishop presides over a Mass today, with/without a deacon, and greets you at the start, announces the gospel, prays the preface to the Eucharistic prayer, and dismisses you at the close of the liturgy, may you relate these words of explanation to what his greeting is saying and doing.   (Now, there are some people who want to de-emphasize the clergy’s part at Mass, or anything of his ‘apartness’ in Holy Orders, and so they will not like the interpretation and references of what we’ve just stated here.   Yet I don’t think that other viewpoint much helps us in supporting our two-thousand year tradition of priesthood in the Church. )

“And with your spirit.”

In the epistle exchanges of Paul, you see this response is also used.  Thus, we return to praying that phrase, as it was used in the First Church, and then through the centuries.   It a greeting and response for the people that was used for people who are gathering in the Church, and who are forming to be saints of God.   It is a biblical form of prayer.  2 Timothy 4:22 and Romans 1:9 are some places it is used in Scripture.        Plus, it is used in context of farewells or departing words, as 1 Cor. 16:18 shows from St. Paul.

2.   SPEAKING OF THE CELEBRATION OF MASS

The priest uses “The Lord be with you” (and its other like-greetings) as the formula of greeting that has been ours in the Faith since the beginning of the Church.    It is a greeting to all the members gathered in the church for Mass.  It is the invitation to a special celebration.    Holy Mass is a celebration.  All are its celebrants.  Roles in Mass do not make one member less from the others there.

While there is some renewed distinction in the Missal of the role of presider, still there is the ongoing teaching of the Church that all are gathered as “equals” in that everyone is a “celebrant” at Mass.   Though we did for a time just call the priest alone as the celebrant of Mass, now we more properly call him the presider there.  He presides over a gathering where all the parish/congregation of Christ’ believers are in celebration.   The give-and-take words and actions of Mass by priest and laity are for one common celebration.   All come to encounter Christ.   Jesus Christ is the joy of the gathering. 

As we pray through the Mass and to its more personal moment of Holy Eucharist, it leads to when the priest/minister will say to the communicant:  “The Body of Christ.”   The believer prays an “Amen” attesting to their true and highest desire for re-union/communion in Jesus, and that they are there to be united as one body to Christ, of many persons becoming one in The Savior (John 1:12).  They have prayed together in welcome of the Lord coming among them as the Offering and Eucharist.  They have prayed/sung a Great Amen to affirm the Eucharistic Prayer.  They pray their Amen to personally receiving Him.    Then, in being sent out with a Prayer After Communion, they pray their consent of “Amen” again in the liturgy.

3 THE AMENS OF THE START AND ENDING OF MASS. 

THE OFFICIAL OPENING—THE “COLLECT”

The Presider says:  LET US PRAY…   (AN OPENING PRAYER IS GIVEN BY THE PRIEST)

AND ALL AFFIRM THE PRAYER WITH AN “AMEN” TO IT.

The dialogue that is started at Mass, of a presider and a congregation in a give-and-take prayer, is highlighted in this finish of the Opening Rites of Mass.   The “Collect” is prayed by the priest.  These prayers differ with each Mass—as they address its particular day and theme (e.g.  33^rd Thursday of Ordinary Time Mass, Easter Sunday Mass, Wedding Mass, Feast of the Assumption of Mary).  Yet each time we reach this part of Mass, it a time of being “collected together” for an experience of Sacred Liturgy.   (It is even most appropriate for a little silence at the Collect to very much collect ourselves.)  At this point in Mass, we note how we are entering the realm of God’s kingdom.  We are praying in parallel to the Eternal Liturgy of Heaven.   We are gathering our focus on encountering Christ Jesus, and doing so as His called people, and desiring His Word and Sacrament.   The priest-presider offers a prayer that represents everyone whom is gathered, and it finishes with him saying “Through Christ our Lord.”   All the members claim this prayer as their collective own, as they voice their “Amen” to it.   We are saying to the Collect:  “So say I.”  ‘”So be it.”   “I agree and echo that Opening Prayer.”    The Mass needs an Amen answer to the prayer of the priest.

All through the Mass the priest will call for the congregation’s approval or “Amen” of consent.    It happens at least eight times each Mass.     Each Amen is an important  one.     

 SAYING OUR AMENS.  

When do  the “Amens” take place at Mass?    The beginning and end of Mass has the Sign of the Cross, and an Amen is prayed there, which affirms that we are praying in our baptism in our Trinitarian life, and going forth (blessed by the priest) to serve God, the Holy Trinity.    The Opening Prayer (Collect) and Closing Prayer After Communion also has the call for an “Amen” to the priest’s prayer.

The other quartet of key Amens are found in The Prayer of Preparing the Gifts and the Prayer after The Doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer (“through Him, with Him…) as well at the Prayer at the Sign of Peace and in the Reception of Holy Communion.

One “Amen” that is not in the Mass is in the Lord’s Prayer:   “deliver us from evil” does not include an Amen, but is followed by a priest’s prayer that leads the congregants to respond to “for the kingdom, the power…”  

Three Special “Amens” may also be included in Mass at special times in what are called the Solemn Blessings of a high liturgy, as the priest gives three invoked blessings, before the Final Blessing, as heads are bowed for it.   

Amens have been in the Sacred Liturgy from the early Church.  It is known by the record of St. Justin Martyr, the Eucharistic Prayer had a Great Amen.   He writes:  “…The bread and wine mixed with water are brought to him who presides over the brethren, he takes them and offers prayers glorifying the Father of all things through the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit and he utters a lengthy thanksgiving because the Father has judged us worthy of these gifts. When the prayer of thanksgiving has ended, all the people present give their assent with an “Amen!”

 <   And we close this article.  To God be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

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