Embolism

Oh dear! Embolism? That sounds like a very serious condition requiring immediate medical care. Actually, it is a prayer of the Mass.

I would like to examine another part of the Mass that needs attention for the purposes of a revised authorised Anglican liturgy in the Catholic Church. This is the beginning of what is often called the Communion rite following the Canon of the Mass.

There has been some variation as to the place of the Our Father at Mass, but that was settled fairly rapidly. There is evidence to suggest that Gregory the Great moved it from after the Communion to its present place in the Roman rite. Its place in the Eastern Rite is always just before the elevation and fraction. In all rites then it comes at the end of the Eucharistic prayer. The embolism is an expansion of its last clause, praying the Lord to deliver us indeed from all manner of evil.

Its form in the older Roman form and the Use of Sarum is thus:

Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all evils, past, present, and to come: and at the intercession of the blessed ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and with Andrew, and all the Saints, graciously grant us peace in all our days: that by the help of thine availing mercy we may ever both be free from sin and safe from all distress. Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

The Byzantine Liturgy, imitated by the modern Roman rite, ends this prayer by another ending –  “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory”. This ending is often added to the Lord’s Prayer in the Anglican tradition, but with the Embolism entirely omitted.

The modern Roman rite (new ICEL translation) gives this abbreviated form:

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, sustained by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope, the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. R. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.

The old Roman rite and most uses thereof have the Fraction during the doxology of the Embolism. The modern Roman rite does not. Instead the order is radically altered to incorporate the Pax before the Fraction. Only after the Fraction and Commixture is the Agnus Dei said:

Taught by the Saviour’s command and formed by the word of God, we have the courage to say: Our Father …

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, sustained by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope, the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

R. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and be pleased to grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Amen.

The peace of the Lord be with you always. R. And with your spirit.

Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

Fraction.

May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

The present Anglican Use Mass is even more terse:

And now, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say,

People and Celebrant

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The celebrant breaks the consecrated Bread and puts the third part of the Host into the chalice saying:

May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.

A period of silence is kept. Then shall be sung or said.

[Alleluia.]  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; Therefore let us keep the feast.  [Alleluia.]

In Lent, Alleluia is omitted, and may be omitted at other times except during Easter Season.

The following anthem may be sung or said here:

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.

Our Lord at the Last Supper took bread and broke it, and so it follows that the consecrated bread is broken in all liturgies. The Gallican and Eastern rites have always been much more elaborate.

The Commixture is intrinsically associated with the Fraction, and this is the dropping of a part of the Host into the chalice containing the Precious Blood. The ancient Roman rite (Ordines Romani I, II, III, etc.) was highly complex, and present practice is but a remnant. At the end of the Embolism, the archdeacon held the chalice before the Pope and he put into it the Sancta. The Sancta were a particle consecrated at a former Mass and reserved till now: the Pope had saluted it at the beginning of Mass. He made three signs of the cross over the chalice and put the Sancta into it at the words: Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum. This rite illustrates the continuity of the Sacrifice between one celebration of the Mass and the next, for in the absolute, there is only one Mass, that of Christ.

The Pope then took a loaf (yes, it was leavened bread at the time, or large unleavened breads like Jewish families use for the Seder), broke off a part, left it on the altar and went to his throne. It was only at the moment of the Pope's Communion that he would make the three signs of the cross with the small piece of consecrated bread over the chalice held by the archdeacon, saying: Fiat commixtio et consecratio corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi accipientibus nobis in vitam aeternam. Amen. Pax tecum. R. Et cum spiritu tuo. and put it into the chalice. He communicated under the species of wine. There were thus two distinct commixtures, first of the Sancta at the Pax, secondly of the newly consecrated species at the Communion. By the eleventh century, the rite of the Sancta disappeared, leaving the second commixture, as we have it now. This is seen in Ordo Romanus XIV.

It would seem that the distinction between the Sancta and the Fermentum come from this. The latter is the Blessed Sacrament sent by the Pope to all the churches of Rome to emphasise the communion of the Church. The order of this rite in the Roman rite and the slight variations thereof in northern European local uses thus come from a long evolution and simplification of the rite. The Sancta is certainly the origin of our practice of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in a tabernacle or a hanging pyx. It emphasises the unity between yesterday's Mass and today's.

I would very much like to see the Embolism and Fraction / Commixture rite restored in the Anglican Use to the Sarum model:

Let us pray. As our Saviour Christ hath commanded and taught us, we are bold to say :
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all evils, past, present, and to come : and at the intercession of the blessed ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and with Andrew, and all the Saints, graciously grant us peace in all our days : that by the help of thine availing mercy we may ever both be free from sin and safe from all distress. Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

The peace + of the + Lord be + always with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.

May this holy + mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be unto me, and to all who receive it, salvation of spirit and body, and a wholesome preparation for eternal life, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.