Orate fratres

Last updated

Orate fratres is the incipit of a request for prayer that the priest celebrating Mass of the Roman Rite addresses to the faithful participating in it before saying the Prayer over the Offerings, [1] formerly called the Secret. It thus corresponds to the Oremus said before the Collect and the Postcommunion, and is an expansion of those shorter exhortations. [2] It has gone through several alterations since the Middle Ages. [3]

Contents

Description

Celebrant's exhortation

The full text of the celebrant's exhortation is: Orate, fratres, ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotentem. [4] [5] The English translation is Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. [1] [6] The earlier (1973) ICEL translation has "our sacrifice" in place of "my sacrifice and yours". [7]

This exhortation is a reminder to the people that the sacrifice being offered is not the priest's alone but theirs also ("my sacrifice and yours"). [8]

The words of the exhortation are the same as in the editio princeps of the Roman Missal issued by Pope Pius V in 1570. [9] At a later stage, editions of the Tridentine Roman Missal introduced a rubric absent in the original, directing the priest to say the Orate fratres exhortation with his voice "raised a little" (voce paululum elevata). [5] A proof that it was not an integral part of the old Roman Mass is that it is always said, not sung, aloud, like the Tridentine Mass prayers at the foot of the altar, last Gospel etc. [2] Adrian Fortescue remarked: "Certainly nowhere is the whispered voice so anomalous as here, where we address the people. If the Orate fratres were an old integral part of the Mass, it would of course be sung loud." [10]

The rubric in the Tridentine editions of the Roman Missal directs the priest, if not already facing the people, to turn to them, say "Orate, fratres" in a low voice while extending and joining his hands, and then turn back to the altar while reciting the rest of the invitation inaudibly. It is the only occasion when those editions tell him to turn back to the altar by completing a clockwise 360° turn, unlike the other occasions, when according to the same editions, he reverses his turning to the people. [11] [12]

The limitation of the voice and the silent recitation of most of the request for prayer was removed in the 1970 edition. A rubric that remains directs the priest, when making the request, to stand at the middle of the altar, facing the people, and to extend then join his hands. In the editions published since 1970 this is the second occasion during the celebration of Mass on which he is explicitly directed to face the people. In earlier editions it was the third occasion.

Congregational response

The congregation responds to the celebrant, saying: Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis, ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostram, totiusque Ecclesiae suae sanctae. [4] [5] The English translation is May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church. [7] The earlier (1973) translation omitted the word "holy". [7]

The original Tridentine Roman Missal included the word "Amen" as an integral part of this response at the end and directed that the whole response ("Amen" included) be said by "the bystanders or else by the priest himself" (Circumstantes respondent: alioquin ipsemet sacerdos). [9] Later editions removed the "Amen" from the response and directed the priest to say the "Amen" himself in a low voice (submissa voce). In the rubric it added "the server or" before "the bystanders" (Minister, seu circumstantes respondent: alioquin ipsemet Sacerdos). [5] Since 1970, editions of the Roman Missal assign the response to the people or, in Masses celebrated without the people, to the server, and speak of an "Amen" at this point only in response to the Prayer over the Offerings. [1]

The response of the people emphasizes both the distinction and the similarity between the priest's sacrifice at the altar and that of the faithful. [13]

Other rites

The Jacobite rite has an almost identical form before the Anaphora; the Nestorian celebrant says: "My brethren, pray for me". Such invitations, often made by the deacon, are common in the Eastern rites. The Gallican rite had a similar one. The Mozarabic invitation at this place is: "Help me brethren by your prayers and pray to God for me". The medieval derived rites, such as the Sarum Rite, had a similar formulation. Many of the old Roman prayers over the offerings contain the same ideas. [2] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass (liturgy)</span> Type of worship service within many Christian denominations

Mass is the main Eucharistic liturgical service in many forms of Western Christianity. The term Mass is commonly used in the Catholic Church, Western Rite Orthodoxy, Old Catholicism, and Independent Catholicism. The term is also used in some Lutheran churches, as well as in some Anglican churches, and on rare occasion by other Protestant churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass of Paul VI</span> Type of liturgical rite in the Roman Catholic Church

The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and published in 1970; it was then revised in 1975, further revised by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and published in a third edition in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tridentine Mass</span> Form of liturgy in the Roman Rite

The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maniple (vestment)</span> Liturgical vestment

The maniple is a liturgical vestment used primarily within the Catholic Church, and occasionally used by some Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran clergy. It is an embroidered band of silk or similar fabric that is hung over the left arm. It is only used within the context of the Mass, and it is of the same liturgical colour as the other Mass vestments.

Low Mass is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as a Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him. A sung Mass celebrated with the assistance of sacred ministers is a High or Solemn Mass; without them it is a Missa Cantata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiss of peace</span> Traditional Christian greeting

The kiss of peace is an ancient traditional Christian greeting, also called the holy kiss, and sometimes the "brother kiss", or the "sister kiss". Such greetings signify a wish and blessing that peace be with the recipient, and besides their spontaneous uses they have certain ritualized or formalized uses long established in liturgy. Many denominations use other forms of greeting to serve equivalent purposes; these include handshakes, gestures, and hugs, any of which may be called a sign of peace.

<i>Confiteor</i> Confessional prayer in the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches

The Confiteor is one of the prayers that can be said during the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. It is also said in the Lutheran Church at the beginning of the Divine Service, and by some Anglo-catholic Anglicans before Mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penitential Act</span> Form of confession of sinfulness practiced in Roman Catholicism

The Penitential Act is a Christian form of general confession of sinfulness that normally takes place at the beginning of the celebration of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholicism, as well as in Lutheranism.

The Memorial Acclamation is an acclamation sung or recited by the people after the institution narrative of the Eucharist. They were common in ancient eastern liturgies and have more recently been introduced into Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist liturgies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Rite</span> Most widespread liturgical rite in the Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Rite is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the sui iuris particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs rites such as the Roman Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours as well as the manner in which sacraments and blessings are performed.

Missa cantata is a form of Tridentine Mass defined officially in 1960 as a sung Mass celebrated without sacred ministers, i.e., deacon and subdeacon.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM)—in the Latin original, Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (IGMR)—is the detailed document governing the celebration of Mass of the Roman Rite in what since 1969 is its normal form. Originally published in 1969 as a separate document, it is printed at the start of editions of the Roman Missal since 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solemn Mass</span> Full ceremonial form of the Tridentine Mass

Solemn Mass is the full ceremonial form of a Mass, predominantly associated with the Tridentine Mass where it is celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of incense. It is also called High Mass or Solemn High Mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Tridentine Mass</span> Forms of the Mass before 1570

Pre-Tridentine Mass refers to the variants of the liturgical rite of Mass in the West before 1570, when, with his bull Quo primum, Pope Pius V made the Roman Missal, as revised by him, obligatory throughout the Latin Church, except for those places and congregations whose distinct rites could demonstrate an antiquity of two hundred years or more.

The Canon of the Mass, also known as the Canon of the Roman Mass and in the Mass of Paul VI as the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I, is the oldest anaphora used in the Roman Rite of Mass. The name Canon Missæ was used in the Tridentine Missal from the first typical edition of Pope Pius V in 1570 to that of Pope John XXIII in 1962 to describe the part of the Mass of the Roman Rite that began after the Sanctus with the words Te igitur. All editions preceding that of 1962 place the indication "Canon Missae" at the head of each page from that point until the end of the Mass; that of 1962 does so only until the page preceding the Pater Noster and places the heading "Ordo Missae" on the following pages.

The text and rubrics of the Roman Canon have undergone revisions over the centuries, while the canon itself has retained its essential form as arranged no later than the 7th century. The text consists of a succession of short prayers with no clear sequence of thought. The rubrics, as is customary in similar liturgical books, indicate the manner in which to carry out the celebration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in the Catholic Church</span> Central liturgical ritual of the Catholic Church

The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner". The Church describes the Mass as the "source and summit of the Christian life", and teaches that the Mass is a sacrifice, in which the sacramental bread and wine, through consecration by an ordained priest, become the sacrificial body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as the sacrifice on Calvary made truly present once again on the altar. The Catholic Church permits only baptised members in the state of grace to receive Christ in the Eucharist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elevation (liturgy)</span> Christian liturgical practice

In Eastern and Western Christian liturgical practice, the elevation is a ritual raising of the consecrated Sacred Body and Blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist. The term is applied especially to that by which, in the Catholic Roman Rite of Mass, the Sacred Body of Christ (Host) and the chalice containing the Most Precious Blood of Christ are each lifted up and shown to the congregation immediately after each is consecrated. The term may also refer to a musical work played or sung at that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liturgical books of the Roman Rite</span> Key texts of Catholicisms most widespread public worship service

The liturgical books of the Roman Rite are the official books containing the words to be recited and the actions to be performed in the celebration of Catholic liturgy as done in Rome. The Roman Rite of the Latin or Western Church of the Catholic Church is the most widely celebrated of the scores of Catholic liturgical rites. The titles of some of these books contain the adjective "Roman", e.g. the "Roman Missal", to distinguish them from the liturgical books for the other rites of the Church.

<i>Versus populum</i> Liturgical stance

Versus populum is the liturgical stance of a priest who, while celebrating Mass, faces the people from the other side of the altar. The opposite stance, that of a priest facing in the same direction as the people, is today called ad orientem or ad apsidem.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Roman Missal (Third Typical Edition), Liturgy Training Publications, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 Adrian Fortescue, "Orate Fratres", in Catholic Encyclopedia 1911
  3. ↑ Pius Parsch, The Liturgy of the Mass, Rev. Frederic C. Eckhoff, trans. (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1949), 182
  4. 1 2 2002 typical edition of the Vatican Roman Missal
  5. 1 2 3 4 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal
  6. ↑ ICEL (official) English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal
  7. 1 2 3 Definitive ICEL translation
  8. ↑ Rev. D. I. Lanslots, Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of the Mass, (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1897), 145-148.
  9. 1 2 Facsimile published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana in 1998 ( ISBN   88-209-2547-8), p. 299
  10. ↑ Adrian Fortescue, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (Longmans, Green and Co. 1912; reprinted Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2003), p. 312
  11. ↑ Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, VII, 7
  12. ↑ The Mass of the Faithful
  13. ↑ John Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary
  14. ↑ Go Prayer
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.