Blog

The priest celebrant himself is the first to receive Holy Communion, praying quietly “May the Body / Blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life” before consuming the host and drinking from the chalice, respectively. At this time, it is appropriate that the Communion Chant begins. As at the Entrance Chant at the beginning of Mass, here too the Church actually provides a specific text, known as the communion antiphon, for every day of the liturgical year. In many churches, these antiphons are read aloud at Masses without music, but it is widely customary to use another hymn in place of this text at Masses with music, although the Church herself provides music for the proper antiphons, and encourages their use, where possible. The priest then distributes Holy Communion to the deacons and other ministers, and then to the congregation, usually with the assistance of the deacon and some extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.

After the distribution of Holy Communion is completed, the vessels used for the distribution are to be purified. This may be done immediately, as is our custom here at St. Vincent de Paul, but it can also be done after Mass, if necessary. This purification is to be done by a priest, deacon, or instituted acolyte, who while doing so prays quietly, “What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.” The rubrics for Mass indicate that a brief period of silence may be observed after Holy Communion, or that a psalm or hymn may be sung in thanksgiving. The former is probably the more common practice.

The Communion Rite and the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist conclude with the Prayer after Communion, which the priest introduces by once again inviting the whole congregation to join their prayers together, saying or singing, “Let us pray.” The Prayer after Communion is often shorter and more sober than the Collect at the beginning of Mass. It is always linked to the reception of Holy Communion and the fruits of the Eucharist in our lives, and it sometimes draws upon the liturgical season or feast being celebrated. One of the three different prayers after communion used for this first part of the season of Advent is a good example: “We implore your mercy, Lord, that this divine sustenance may cleanse us of our faults and prepare us for the coming feasts.”

Finally, we have come to the Concluding Rites. Once again, the priest and congregation address one another, calling upon the baptismal and ministerial priesthood: “The Lord be with you – And with your spirit.” The priest celebrant then blesses the entire congregation using the Sign of the Cross and invoking the Most Holy Trinity, “May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The congregation traces upon themselves the Sign of the Cross as they receive the blessing, and proclaim, “Amen,” affirming that every blessing comes through the Cross of Christ, by which He reconciles us to God.

The last words of Mass are the Dismissal, given by the deacon, or in his absence, the priest. There are four options for the dismissal given in the Roman Missal: “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life,” or simply “Go in peace.” Each of these formulas begins with the word “Go,” which reveals the significance of the dismissal. Here, the deacon or priest echoes the Great Commission given by Christ Himself to the disciples, when he said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 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 behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). At the end of every Mass, we are all sent out on mission by the Church. The gift we receive in the Eucharist comes with the responsibility to live our vocations generously and to commit to making our whole life a gift, a spiritual sacrifice to God. We are like the disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35), who, after Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread, ran to the disciples in Jerusalem to share their joy. The Church sends us, too, to share with our brothers and sisters the joy that we have received at having encountered the Risen Lord in the celebration of Mass. We respond “Thanks be to God” to the dismissal, not because we are glad that Mass is finally over, but because gratitude for the many gifts we have received is what the Church wants us to bring away from every Mass.

The sacred ministers once again venerate the altar with a kiss, as they did at the beginning of Mass, and then make a profound bow to the altar or a genuflection to the Eucharistic Lord still present in the tabernacle. Then the priest and deacon, together with the servers, form the procession out of the church, leading forth the entire assembly of those sent out into the world to glorify the Lord by our lives.