ABOUT THE MASS SERIES VOL 2
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About the Mass Vol 2. icon. |
‘DELIVERANCE PRAYER AND DOXOLOGY’ (for the Kingdom)
Perhaps you may have wondered why when the Our Father is recited at Mass
we do not say Amen, yet at other times in private recitation we do. This
is because at Mass the Our Father leads straight into another prayer.
A literary development from a text is called ‘embolism’ from the Greek
meaning ‘piece added to the garment’. The embolism used here is ‘Deliver us,
Lord from every evil…’ This Deliverance prayer, as it is sometimes
called, goes back to the time of St Gregory the Great (6th century).
We are waiting in joyful hope for the coming in glory of Jesus. We can
wait in hope because we know that Christ has not left us orphans, and through
the Church in the Mass and the Sacraments we are able to meet the Risen Christ
in our midst.
In waiting in joyful hope therefore, we can indeed be delivered from
every evil and be protected from all anxiety because in faith we know that the
risen Christ does indeed offer us peace and mercy.
When the priest says this prayer, his hands are extended; it is an
invitation to pray and also a visual sign to us of Christ. Christ,
through the priest invites us to pray for deliverance of every evil, all
anxieties, temptations and he extends to us the gifts of peace and mercy.
Our response to this wonderful prayer is ‘For the kingdom, the
power, and the glory are yours now and forever’. This is known as
the Doxology, and by including it in the Mass, we are also showing
some unity with other Christian brothers and sisters.
It also expresses the reality that Christ is the alpha and omega and is
‘on the throne’ in our heart.
It should be noted that this is a concluding Doxology but should not be
confused with the Great Doxology which occurred at the end of the Eucharistic
Prayer: Through Him, With Him and In Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all
glory and honour is Yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever.
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