April 2010 A.D.
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

During our last discussion we saw how the memorial (anamnesis) and the invocation (epiclesis) are connected is a special way that helps us remember what God has done for us and we are confident to make our requests to God in prayer. These petition prayers draw us deeper into God’s memory – and our own – to recall our Christian ancestors and our heritage. Our heritage and our future are part of the prayer we offer to God. In these prayers we are in communion with God, with one another, with our ancestors, with our neighbors, with our future. Communion with God means communion with one another (the image and likeness of God within us). We are called to, participate in, and are made for, this dual communion. This dual communion is directly connected to our salvation (the cause of our joy). Saint Augustine expresses it this way. “The true peace of rational creatures, which is the only peace of the heavenly city, consists in a perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God and of one another in God” (City of God 19, 17). Our enjoyment of one another and God is expressed in the Doxology and the Great Amen.

We taste this enjoyment, this praise, in the Eucharistic feast. The technical term for this enjoyment or praise is doxology. This sense of praising and glorifying God has been consistent in the Eucharistic prayer from the beginning. Because it is at the end of the Eucharistic prayer and reminds us of our beginning, it brings us full circle.
We are back at the prayers “Blessed are you Lord God of all Creation…”; and our response, “Blessed be God for ever.”

The doxology is the Priestly prayer of praise and glorification that reminds us of our communion with Jesus, The Christ, and God the Father, in the Holy Spirit. The priest lifts the bread and wine – the bread and wine we brought as sacrifice – bread and wine now the BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, & DIVINITY of Jesus – our Eucharistic Lord, which we will soon consume – and lifting them up he presents them to God the Father as the ”perfect offering made to the glory of your name.” The words of the doxology say it better than I. “Through Him, with Him, in Him, in unity with the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours Almighty Father, forever and ever.” The doxology then, is the Eucharistic prayer’s final thrust of our hearts toward God.

At this very moment, The Church is doing what Christ did and does into eternity; she offers his one body, which is joined to the church, to the Father for the Glory of His name and for the salvation of the world. Our communion in this sacrifice of Christ is perfect praise.

The doxology has a Trinitarian formula that clearly recalls the Holy Trinity that God has revealed to us. The prepositions in the prayer offer us a summary of the Faith. TO the Father, THROUGH the Son, IN the Holy Spirit, WITH Mary and the Saints, are all reminders of our Communion with God and one another.

We have remembered (anamnesis) what we asked for (epiclesis) and ended that memory with a perfect act of praise and glory to God (doxology). The Priest has lead the Eucharistic prayer, speaking in the name of the Church, and acting in the person of Christ. Through the priest’s leadership, the congregation experiences the indispensable and unfathomable mediation of Christ before the Father. To all of this, we reply with a resounding AMEN.

This “Great Amen” is the biggest Amen of the Mass and everywhere on earth. All the other Amens in the Mass have been a warm-up for this one and, in fact those Amens are included in this “Great Amen.” The Amen after the Creed is here. All 12 articles of the Creed are here. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are here. The Great Amen is THE AMEN that agrees to all that has gone before, seeks to understand all that has gone before, and desires it to be so. The Great Amen, like the Mass containing it, is heard and echoed around the world, through the centuries, to the heights of heaven, and never ends. May it be ever on our lips as we sing AMEN.

Next time we will discuss our participation in the Communion Rite within Holy Mass. May God draw us closer to Himself as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord during the eight glorious weeks of Easter.