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Listen to the Word

United in the Spirit

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The prayers this Sunday alternate between the breadth of the Spirit’s gifts uniting all peoples of every nation and the depth of the gift of the Spirit which brings us in Christ to share in divine life, writes Daniel McCarthy

he work of the Spirit is at once per- sonal and social, multiform and united.

Textual analysis: In the preface, the relative pronoun qui, “who, which”, refers to the Spirit. The Latin text of the Prayer After Communion presents the idea of increase in two conflict- ing ways. On the one hand, the etymological root of “redemption” means to buy (emere) back (re). A person cannot be more or less bought back. Instead, one is either redeemed or not. Redemption increases, rather, by exten- sion as more people are added to the number of the redeemed.

On the other hand, the spiritual food we receive in Communion contributes to a per- sonal increase. Through this regular nourishment one may share more fully in the mystery of Christ received, according to the process of our sanctification or divinisation. The prayer, however, suggests that the Communion we receive contributes to an increase, suggesting personal growth, but the increase is of eternal redemption, suggesting numerical growth. The conflict lies in this con- flation of personal and numerical growth. The conflict in this prayer arises from the combination of two ancient prayers (see The Tablet, 30 May 2009, p. 18) to form this new prayer for the Missale Romanumof 1970. One of these prayers provides the line ut … et … spiritalis esca proficiat, “so that … and the spir- itual food may contribute”. The other prayer

provides the line aeternae redemptionis aug-

mentum, “an increase of eternal redemption”. This last prayer describes the Church: “May your Church, O Lord, be filled with heavenly grace and grow, and, having been purged from all faults, may it reap an increase of eternal redemption …”. The increase of eternal redemp- tion refers to the number of people that the purified Church reaps. As they come to share in the redemption offered by Christ, they are brought to the Communion table, so that the spiritual food they receive may contribute to a personal increase.

Ritual development

Opening Prayer:The prayer correlates the

Church’s growth in holiness, that is in being set-apart and growing in divine life, with the broadest extension of the Spirit’s gifts bestowed throughout the world. We petition that the Spirit work intimately within believing hearts

16 | THE TABLET | 22 May 2010

STUDY TEXTS: PENTECOST

Opening Prayer

O God, who by the mystery of today’s feast make your whole Church holy in every people and nation, pour down the gifts of the Holy Spirit into the entire breadth of the world, and, what the divine mercy worked among the very beginnings of Gospel preaching, pour out even now over the hearts of the ones believing.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ … Amen.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Grant, we ask, O Lord, that according to the promise of your Son

the Holy Spirit may reveal to us more fully the hidden mystery of this sacrifice and may graciously dis- close all truth.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

you granted to be children of adoption, which Spirit, at the beginning of the Church being-born,

imparted a knowledge of the Divinity to all peoples

and joined the diversity of languages together in the profession of one faith.

Wherefore, the Easter joys having been poured forth,

Post Communionem (Prayer After Communion)

Deus, qui Ecclesiae tuae caelestia dona largiris,

custodi gratiam quam dedisti, ut Spiritus Sancti vigeat semper munus infusum,

Preface on the mystery of Pentecost

Truly worthy and just it is, fitting and healthful, that always and everywhere we give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty eternal God.

et ad aeternae redemptionis augmentum spiritalis esca proficiat. Per Christum.

the whole wide world rejoices. But even the heavenly pow- ers and angelic forces sing the hymn of your glory, without end saying: Holy, Holy, Holy …

Prayer After Communion

O God, who abundantly give heavenly gifts to your Church,

guard the grace, which you have given,

so that the outpoured gift of the Holy Spirit may ever grow,

and the spiritual food may contribute to an increase of eternal redemption. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

For completing the Easter sacrament on this day you imparted the Holy Spirit to the ones

to whom through the partnership of your Only- begotten

so that like the early believers we may go out into all the world to proclaim the Gospel.

Prayer Over the Gifts: The prayer corre-

lates the intimate work of the Spirit revealing to us the hidden mysteries of our worship with the Spirit’s work disclosing all truth, with uni- versal and social implications.

Preface on the Mystery of Pentecost: In

the Easter mystery we become partners with God’s Only-begotten and are granted to be chil- dren of adoption. By the anointing with the Spirit we too become christs, anointed ones, in Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, which is to say that he is filled with the Spirit. We receive the Spirit’s gifts to continue God’s work on earth. The prayer correlates the gift of the Spirit given to all peoples with the unity of their

(The study texts are translated directly from the Latin originals and prepared in collabor - ation with Frs Reginald Foster OCD and James Leachman OSB. These texts are not polished translations, but are intended to reveal a the- ological richness and beauty.)

profession of faith in a diversity of languages.

Prayer After Communion:The prayer cor-

relates one’s personal growth, nourished by the Communion received, with the Church’s numerical growth, fostered by a variety of divine gifts and divine protection, as more people come to eternal redemption.

The art of celebrating

The same Spirit that enlivens the ministerial diversity of the liturgical assembly prompts us to proclaim one faith. The Spirit fosters one’s personal growth and sends us out to proclaim the Gospel so that we may be one in the Spirit.

■Daniel McCarthy OSB is a monk of St Benedict’s Abbey, Kansas, and teaches liturgy in Rome. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44
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