The Communion Rite

Give Us Each Day Our Daily Bread

Our first response after the singing of the Great Amen is to pray the prayer that is at the heart of all Christian prayer, the Our Father or The Lord’s Prayer.  The Gospels of Matthew and Luke give us two versions of this prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him, “Teach us to pray.” 

Because this prayer above all other prayers came from the lips of Jesus himself, it is only appropriate that this be the prayer that leads us into the Communion Rite in which we affirm our unity in Christ, exchange the Peace found only in Christ, and approach the Table where we are nourished with the Body and Blood of the Lord. 

This is a petition "made for daily food, which for Christians means preeminently the Eucharistic bread, and also for purification from sin, so that what is holy may be given to those who are holy."  (GIRM 81)

There are four formulas that the presiding priest uses to invite us to pray this prayer. Some people often say that when the Lord’s Prayer is sung it is the part of the liturgy that is sung best.  

On the other hand this prayer should be available for all people to pray so sometimes it is better that we recite it rather than sing. 

We Give Praise Yet Again!

Following the petition, “but deliver us from evil” there occurs a short insertion into the prayer known technically as the embolism. The priest asks that the people of God might be protected from all evil, relieved of the cares and worries of life as we await the coming of Christ. The prayer leads us to hope for the day when all things will be fulfilled in Christ, and our response is once again full of praise “For the kingdom the power and the glory are yours now and forever.” If The Lord’s Prayer has been sung this Doxology should be sung as well.

We Find Peace In Christ

The presider now prays the Prayer for Peace. This is the only prayer in the whole of the Mass that is addressed in the first instance to Jesus.  It picks up one of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospel according to John (which we hear on the second Sunday of Easter.) 

The peace that Christ bestows has to do with the human spirit, and as we hear in the prayer, is related very much to reconciliation. “Look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church.”   The greeting of the peace that follows this prayer is very ancient. St Paul in writing his various letters to the early Church communities often concluded with the phrase. “Greet each other with a holy kiss.” 

In some early Church liturgies the Greeting of Peace took place just before the Eucharistic Prayer to express the unity and oneness of the assembly before the great prayer. In other places the greeting took place at the end of the liturgy just before the people left.  In the Roman Rite it has traditionally been placed just before Holy Communion. In the old Latin Mass the greeting was only exchanged between the ministers in the sanctuary.  When the reforms of the Vatican II  took place it was once again restored to the whole Assembly. 

This greeting more than any other action in the Eucharist expresses the oneness of God’s people gathered in the name of Christ to share in the "one bread and one cup." It should not be seen as something trivial or that we should get over with a quick and embarrassed handshake. 

The peace that we exchange is not our own, but Christ Himself! Early in the liturgical renewal there were times when the greeting of peace became a "free for all". People went rushing all over the Church and even started up conversations about the weather etc!  Obviously this is a solemn moment in the liturgy and we should meaningfully exchange the peace with those around us in a dignified way, making eye contact with each person we greet.

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This article was originally published in Let’s Walk Through The Mass. © Diocese of Parramatta.  1999, 2000, 2007. Reprinted with permission.