Companion to the Order of Mass The new translation
By Mgr Bruce Harbert All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Contents
Introductory Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Penitential Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Gloria, Collect, Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Offertory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 The Roman Canon: First Eucharistic Prayer . . . . . . . .52 Second Eucharistic Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Third Eucharistic Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Fourth Eucharistic Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Communion Rite and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
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Introductory Rites Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the 1 close of the age.
The Ascension of Christ
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These are the last words that Our Lord spoke on earth to his disciples, as reported by the Gospel of Matthew. We come to Mass to obey one of his commands, that is, to take bread and wine in his memory, as he commanded at the Last Supper, ‘Do this in remembrance of me’.2 And when we come, he fulfils in a particular way his final promise to be with us always, as bread and wine are transformed into his Body and Blood for us to eat and drink. Because of this link of continuity between Our Lord’s farewell and our own eucharistic celebration, it is appropriate that the priest’s opening words are taken from the last words of Jesus. We can imagine a film in which Jesus and his disciples are on the mountain of the Ascension, and as he speaks he fades from view, to be replaced on the screen by a priest in Mass vestments saying In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit We say these words so often during our Catholic life that it is easy for us to forget their meaning and import. Reading them in their original context in the Bible helps us to recover our lost awareness. A large proportion of the words of the liturgy are drawn from Scripture. To grow in knowledge of the Bible is the best way of deepening our understanding of the liturgy.
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These are the words with which everybody is baptised. Their use at the beginning of Mass reminds us that the eucharistic assembly is a gathering of the baptised. In earlier days, the unbaptised were not allowed to be present for the whole of the celebration. Even now, when attendance at Mass is open to all, those who come without suitable preparation must surely be puzzled by what they see and hear. The Mass only makes sense in the context of the Faith as a whole, instruction in which necessarily accompanies baptism. All of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus, says Saint Paul, were baptised into his death; we have been buried with him by baptism (Romans 6:3-4). So it is appropriate that, as the baptismal words are uttered, we make the sign of the death of Christ, which is the sign of the Cross. We, the baptised, are those who are committed to live no longer for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again for us, as the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer says.2a The Mass is a re-entry into the mystery of Christ’s death, so that it is appropriate to begin with this reminder of the instrument of his crucifixion. Amen The people respond with Amen, the first of many occasions on which they will use this word to indicate that they identify with the celebrant in what he says. At this point, they indicate that, as a baptised people, they are ready to
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enter again into the presence of the Lord and to identify themselves with him in his death, taking up the Cross with him. Communion of the Holy Spirit Saint Paul had a long and difficult relationship with the turbulent Christian community at Corinth, and wrote two letters to them. At the end of the second of these, he took his leave of them with these words: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.3 Just as the Church uses the last words of Jesus to his disciples, so she uses the last words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians as she begins the Mass. The word communion deserves special notice. It translates the Greek koinonia, which is used in several senses in the New Testament. Modern translations use several different English words to translate koinonia, but here I have altered the Revised Standard Version, translating it by ‘communion’ in every case, in order to bring out the relationship among its various senses. Acts speaks of the relationship among the members of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem as ‘the communion’,4 and Saint Paul uses the same word often in a similar sense. For instance, he narrates how Peter, James and John extended the ‘right hand of communion’ to him
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and Barnabas5. His second letter to the Corinthians, from which our greeting is drawn, is particularly rich in such uses, motivated perhaps by Saint Paul’s concern to stress the need for solidarity within the Christian community6. ‘Fellowship’, ‘partnership’, ‘sharing’ and ‘solidarity’ are all possible translations for koinonia when used in that sense, which we may call ‘horizontal’. But koinonia also has a ‘vertical’ sense, when it expresses the relationship of Christians with Christ: God is faithful; by him you were called into the communion of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord7 To the Philippians, Paul writes of his desire for communion in the sufferings of Christ, and speaks of ‘the communion of the Spirit,8 as he does at the end of his second letter to the Corinthians in the greeting that we are studying. The ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ senses come together when Paul writes of the Eucharist, in which Christians are united both with Christ and with one another: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.9 A brief passage at the beginning of Saint John’s First Letter brings together the two dimensions of communion,
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and can be a useful basis for meditation on this central New Testament concept: that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have communion with us; and our communion is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.10 But such communion can be destroyed: If we say we have communion with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have communion with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.11 For this reason it is appropriate that, as Christians gather to celebrate the Eucharist, they pray for the communion of the Holy Spirit. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Again and again in the New Testament we find the words Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The order of words in this greeting may seem strange: would it not be more natural to say 'Grace and peace to you'? Perhaps, but it seems that the earliest Christians used to greet one another in this way. We find this greeting in the letters of Saint Paul on no fewer than
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eight occasions12, and in a shorter form in two others13, and each time ‘to you’ comes between ‘grace’ and peace’. That phrase is found also at the beginning of each of the letters of Saint Peter 14 and at the beginning of the Book of Revelation15. What this seems to indicate is that the precise form of words ‘grace to you and peace’ was a standard greeting among the earliest Christians. Perhaps it functioned as a secret code, enabling Christians readily to identify bona fide members of their own community. In the New Testament, of course, we find this greeting in Greek. When the Scriptures came to be translated into Latin, the same word-order was preserved, so that when Mass is celebrated in Latin today, Gratia vobis et pax is the form used. More recent translations, too, have followed this tradition, for instance the King James Authorised Version and the Catholic Douai version, as well as Martin Luther’s translation into German. When a priest greets the eucharistic assembly in this way, he is using a greeting that goes back to the very earliest days of Christianity. The Lord be with you The priest may also greet the people at the beginning of Mass with The Lord be with you. The Latin form of this greeting, Dominus vobiscum, is found only once in the Vulgate Latin Bible. Boaz, an owner of land near Bethlehem, meets some reapers on their way to gather the harvest from his fields.
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...and he said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you!’ And they answered, ‘The Lord bless you.’16 Behind the reapers walks a group of gleaners, poor people who collect whatever they can from the grain that the reapers have left behind. Among these is Ruth, from Moab, a widow who is struggling to support herself and her mother-in-law Naomi in a foreign land. We may picture her as haggard, because undernourished, and poorly clothed. She may make us think of those who search for food among the rubbish on the streets of our cities. A priest who says The Lord be with you, like Boaz, does not know who hears him. It is a greeting made to all within earshot, however marginalised they may be. Boaz’ greeting was not directed towards Ruth, but he notices her and enquires about her, and is impressed by what he hears about Ruth and her care for Naomi. He offers Ruth his protection, and soon their relationship develops until, at the end of the book, we find Naomi looking after little Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth, who are now married. Obed was to be the father of Jesse, the father of King David, from whom Christ’s own descent is traced17. So Boaz’ greeting, which we repeat at Mass, is a link in the chain that leads to the Incarnation. You never know what will happen when you say ‘The Lord be with you’.
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The Tree of Jesse
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The Latin form of this greeting has no verb, with the result that it can correctly be translated either as a wish ‘the Lord be with you’ or as a statement ‘the Lord is with you’. The other greetings in the Introductory Rite are unambiguously wishes, and Dominus vobiscum has been translated to conform with them. But it may be noted that, whereas a priest extends his hands as he says these words, the rubrics instruct a deacon to keep his hands joined, an indication, perhaps, that he is making a statement, recognising the presence of the Lord in the assembly. Speakers of English, who use ‘you’ for both singular and plural, may be reminded of the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, ‘The Lord is with you’, another link in the incarnational chain. Who is ‘the Lord’ referred to here? Boaz uses a Hebrew expression that refers to God, and we must understand him to be speaking of God as understood in his time and place. But among Christians the matter is different, and there are supporters for interpreting ‘the Lord’ as referring to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and all three Divine Persons conceived as a unity. There is no clear winner among these different views, and there probably never will be. We are free to make our own choice. Peace be with you As we have seen, the greetings at the beginning of Mass are taken from Scripture. But only one of them comes from
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the lips of Christ himself. Twice on the day of his Resurrection, John’s Gospel tells us, he said to his anxious disciples ‘Peace be with you’.18 A week later, meeting them again, he said the same words.19 Only a Bishop may use this greeting in the liturgy. This is appropriate, for the Bishop is the principal representative of Christ in his diocese. When a diocesan Bishop celebrates solemnly, with seven candles carried before him in procession, recalling the opening vision of the Book of Revelation20, and passes between them on his way to the altar, there we have an icon of Christ, of whom that book speaks as the one ‘who walks among the seven golden lampstands’. When we see the Bishop turn to us and hear from his lips the words of the Risen Lord, Peace be with you, then we may imagine ourselves among the Apostles on the first Easter Day. And with your spirit The people’s response to all the greetings is the same. It is not found in Scripture. The nearest scriptural parallels are in the letters of Saint Paul, who provides the most useful key for the interpretation of these words. He takes his leave of the Galatians thus: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen21, of the Philippians and of Philemon with his companions thus:
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit22, and of Timothy thus: The Lord be with your spirit23. Paul’s use of ‘spirit’ at the end of his letter to the Galatians is particularly interesting, because he has spent a good part of his previous chapter24 explaining what he understands by ‘spirit’, contrasting it with ‘flesh’. This is not a contrast between the material and non-material components of human nature, but rather between what in us is directed by the influence of the Holy Spirit and what is not. Some translators of this passage print ‘Spirit’ with a capital letter, indicating that they understand that God’s Holy Spirit is being referred to here, while others, by using a small letter, show that they consider Paul to be speaking of the human spirit. This divergence points to the fact that, for Paul, the Divine Spirit and the human spirit are very close. He writes at one point of them bearing witness together: When we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ...25 According to P. C. Spicq, the Dominican Pauline Scholar, by ‘spirit’ Saint Paul means ‘the spiritual part of man that is closest to God, the immediate object of divine influence, and in particular the receptacle of the Spirit of God’.
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Paul lists the ‘works of the flesh’ as ‘fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like’26. The fact that not all of these are external, bodily activities, but rather take place internally, within the mind, shows that, for Saint Paul, ‘the flesh’ is not synonymous with ‘the body’. Nor is ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ purely internal, comprising as it does ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...’ When Saint Paul ends his letter to the Galatians with ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen’, he is praying that Christ’s grace will strengthen and foster the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ within them. As Paul’s letter to the Galatians comes to focus on the spiritual dimension of their lives, so the people’s response to the celebrant at Mass indicates that their concern is spiritual, and that what they are about to do is to be done with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Saint John Chrysostom spells this out in a sermon for Pentecost: If there were no Holy Spirit, there would be no shepherds or teachers in the Church, since they come to be through the Spirit, as Paul says: ‘In which the Holy Spirit set you as shepherds and overseers’28. Do you see that this [i.e. the eucharistic celebration] also takes place through the Spirit? Had the Holy Spirit not been in this man, our 27
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common father and teacher, when a short while ago he went up to this holy sanctuary and gave peace to all of you, and you all answered him together, ‘And to your Spirit’, then, not only would you not reply with these words when he goes up, and when he speaks to you, and when he prays on your behalf, but also when he stands beside this holy table as he is about to offer that tremendous sacrifice; for... he does not touch the oblations before he himself invokes on you the grace that comes from the Lord, and you answer him, ‘And to your Spirit’, reminding yourselves by those words that the man who is present does nothing, and that the gifts set before you are not achievements of human nature, but that it is the Spirit’s grace, present and descending on all, that prepares that mystical sacrifice. Do not therefore look to the nature of what is seen, but recognise the grace that is unseen. Of the things that take place in this holy sanctuary, nothing is human. Some will object that Chrysostom is speaking of the gift of the Holy Spirit as if it belonged to the priest alone, but he goes on to speak of the presence of the Spirit in the Church as a whole. If the Spirit were not present, the Church would not assemble; and if the Church does assemble, then it is clear that the Spirit is present.29 It is as though Chrysostom were amplifying Saint Paul’s words, ‘no one can say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit,’30 by adding, ‘and no one can say, “And with your spirit,” except by the Holy Spirit’.
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Penitential Act Saint Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, warns against receiving the Eucharist without due preparation: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.31 Our Lord himself also speaks of the preparation necessary before the offering of sacrifice: So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.32 Let us acknowledge our sins Appropriately, then, at the beginning of Mass the Church invites us to acknowledge our sins. Acknowledge means not merely to call them to mind, but to express openly our sorrow for them. We are often reluctant to do this, so the
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Church helps us by putting into our mouths the words of characters we meet in the Bible. First comes King David. He is well known for his sin of contriving the death of Uriah so that he could marry Uriah’s wife Bathsheba32a but in the formula beginning I confess..., we hear an echo of another moment of repentance as we say I have greatly sinned. These are the words of King David when, at Satan’s prompting, he has conducted a census of the people and thereby provoked God’s displeasure And David said to God, ‘I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.’33 When our feelings are aroused, we tend to repeat ourselves, often making groups of three similar expressions. There are several examples of this in the Mass, beginning with through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Liturgical texts, like this one, have the function, not merely of expressing how we feel but of teaching us how to feel. These words are intended to help us feel penitent. Have mercy on us The prayer Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned against you is based on a verse from the Book of Baruch34, which is set in the time of Israel’s exile from the Promised Land. It encourages the people of Israel to repent of their
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sins, which have caused the exile. It is useful to read through this short book, perhaps during Lent, to deepen one’s sense of sorrow for sin. All farmland needs rain, and a drought can be disastrous. Psalm 85 belongs to a time of drought: the psalmist names Israel’s sin as the reason why God is withholding rain from the land. He begs God to turn from his anger, as he has done on past occasions of Israel’s history. and prays that God’s mercy will save them from the threat of a poor harvest. The Church borrows from this Psalm when she says Show us, O Lord, your mercy. And grant us your salvation. You were sent to heal the contrite of heart In one form of the Penitential Act, the words that the Church uses to express her sorrow for sin are derived from the words of Christ himself. Luke’s Gospel tells how Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth and announced his mission in these words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.35