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How did the Roman Missal originate?

In the early Christian Church, many of the prayers that were said at Eucharist were memorized and handed down by word of mouth. Eventually the prayers were collected and written down in books known as sacramentaries (book of sacraments). Scripture readings were recorded in other books and the Psalms were written in a book called the Psalter. Throughout the ages, as these manuscripts were passed down, modifications and additions were made. Eventually, all the chants, prayers, instructions and scriptures were organized into one book. It was written in Latin and as the texts contained in it continued to evolve over the next five centuries it became quite large. After the Second Vatican Council, the Mass was translated into many different languages (the vernacular).
Epiclesis – a ‘calling down’ of the Holy Spirit
A Walk through the New Mass

The four familiar forms of the Eucharistic Prayer have different ways in which the Holy Spirit is invoked to ‘make holy’ the offered bread and wine. The one shown here is from the Second Eucharistic Prayer.

Former: New:

Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy

 

 Make holy, therefore these gifts we pray by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall

 

The dew of the Holy Spirit is a beautiful biblical and patristic image of the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Land the heavy dew is an important source of moisture in a very dry land. So dew is gentle but very powerful. The fathers of the church used that combination of gentleness and power in a dry land to create a metaphor to describe what they wanted to say about the Holy Spirit.

 

The change in the epiclesis in the Eucharist tells us something about the nature of the Church and the sacraments. The sacraments are not simply an extension of the person and work of Jesus in the sphere of the Church; the Church does not ‘have’ the Holy Spirit. It must, rather, ask for the Spirit, and in this way recall Jesus Christ and His saving work – and it can be certain that this plea will be heard.

Based on the DVD ‘Become One Body, One Spirit, in Christ’ and on the ‘Catholic Sensibility’ website from 13 October 2005.

©2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
 

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