NOTES ON THE ROMAN MISSAL

Items 1-9. Opening Prayers

The opening rites are built around three items, the Inroit, the Kyrie, and the Gloria, sung over the largely inaudible spoken prayers. Their development illustrates the process by which the mass graually took shape, formed over time through the insertion of additional elements into the existing framework of the eucharistic liturgy.That iintially consisted of Readings, and the Eucharistic Prayer (Canon), which left space for development before the Readings. 

The first item added was the proper Collect or Opening Prayer (fifth century), then the Kyrie litany was added to the entrance procession (by early in the sixth century), which grew in scale and solemnity and was accompanied by the clerical choir (schola) singing a proper entrance Psalm, the Introit (seventh century), with the Kyrie shortened. The Praes at the Foot of the Altar became part of the mass itself during the seventh (Psalm 42) and tenth centuries (the Confiteor), having been private prayers of preparation recited by the celebrant in e sacristy or on is way to the altar The Gloria, a joyful hymn imported from the East, was restricted in Rome to bishops’ masses until the twelfth century. Surpisingly, the last item added was the opening: In nomine Patris etc.. This happened as late as the fourteenth century. 

item 2. Added in the tenth century, the relatively lengthy Psalm 42/43 was initially said by the priest in the sacristy or silently on his way to the altar. Presumably chosen in the first place because of the line Introibo ad altare Dei (‘I will go unto the altar of God’), it makes for a rather unfocused opening, as some of the references in the psalm inevitably do not fit the context in the way a specially composed prayer would. Like most imports into the Roman mass, it originated in the Latin liturgy of the Frankish Empire (France and Germany)

.3. Although not added to the text of the Roman mass until the eleventh century, and, like it, originating as one of the celebrant’s preparatory prayers, the Confiteor is at home here (in both senses: at this point in the mass as well as at the foot of the altar steps). It is recited by the priest, and then the server(s) successively. For the structure of the Confiteor CLICK HERE

6. As its name indicates, the INTROIT  originated  as an entrance psalm sung by the choir split into two choruses, alternating. A single verse (known as an antiphon) preceded the singing of the full psalm, to allow the choir to pick up the melody. Because of growing musical complexity, and the shortening of the opening procession, it became necessary during the eighth to tenth centuries to shorten it to a single verse of the psalm and the antiphon  (see also Item 11).

7. The Kyrie ^[ii Borrowed from the ceremonial of the imperial Byzantine court, like the opening procession, which it originally accompanied, and the escort with incense and candles, the Greek Kyrie had arrived in Rome in the fifth century in the form of a joyful open-ended litany sung as the pope or bishop’s procession made its way into the church. The singing continued until the bishop signalled that it was time to stop! Useful as such flexibility must have been, once the shape of the Opening Rite was finalised, it was no longer necessary. In the sung mass, a musically developed version of the Introit was sung by the choir during the entrance procession of the celebrants and other ministers (and continuing over the said prayers). The Kyrie became part of the mass itself, typically sung by the choir divided into two, and limited to nine acclamations,  three times Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy! ) then three times Christe eleison (Christ, have mercy!) and finally three times Kyrie once more.

9. The Collect[iii] Added as early as the fifth century, a short, concise prayer proper to the day, so called because it gathered up or ‘collected’ the prayers of all those present.  It has a clear and basically unchanging though flexible structure, which sums up a specific theme for the mass in just one sentence by drawing on distinctive features of Latin style, especially relative clauses (those beginning with ‘who’, ‘whose’ and ‘whom’). For the strucure of Collects CLICK HERE

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11. A feature of the natural development of the mass was the reduction of the proper psalms to just one or two verses sung by a soloist and/or schola (clerical choir). This affeced the Introit at the beginning, the Gradual, before the gospel, the Offertory chant  and the Communion antiphon.The reduction came about because the psalms became so intricately developed musically that they took a long time to complete, and were anyway beyond the singing capability of congregations. It meant the point of the psalm was lost if it did not emerge in the opening verse.^[ii] The Gradual and the Alleluia before the gospel were originally responsorial psalms..^[iii]

14.  Sermon By the ninth century, Latin was no longer an everyday spoken language, because of the emergence of the various vernaculars, which had developed from the local spoken dialects of Latin, and the increasing numbers of speakers of Germanic languages, as the missionaries spread throughout Northern Europe. Their cousins, the Germanic peoples already settled in the territories of the old Empire, gradually switched to the local form of Latin, merging into the original population, as for example the Franks and the Celtic Gallo-Romans became one people speaking the language now called Old French. The Frankish Emperor Charlemagne had insisted that the sermon should be preached in the appropriate vernacular, which in turn encouraged the addition of pulpits to churches and eventually to prayers in the vernacular led from the pulpit. This developed into a self-contained short vernacular service, which eventually was moved to immediately before mass began.^[iv]

8 and 15. Gloria [v] and Credo [vi] The major individual items added between 600 and 1000 AD say a lot about the characteristics of the Eastern liturgies from which they all originally came.The Gloria was originally a Christmas hymn, (hence the opening words, echoing those of the angels who greet Christ’s birth), later imported from the East into the Gallican liturgy before being accepted into the Roman rite. Until late in the twelfth century it was reserved for bishop’s masses, except at Easter. It serves admirably as a mood-setting hymn of joy and praise.  It is hard to imagine Sunday mass in the appropriate seasons without the Gloria or the Credo (‘I believe in God...’), being recited or sung, but it is the weekday mass which in fact follows the original Roman norm in having neither.

The Credo owes its origin to the Councils of the fourth century (Nicea 325 and Constantinople 381) which defined the church's teaching on the relationship of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to God the Father in the light of bitter disputes and splits. It has a remarkable structure (see Appendix 2) which is effectively three sentences depending on and constantly referring back to its opening word Credo I believe. Catherine Pickstock has brilliantly demonstrated that its form is itself also a statement about the Triniity^8] Originally part of the baptismal liturgy, it was surely appropriate for such a declaration of faith to be said or sung by the whole congregation. This was still the case in France in the ninth century but eventually, like the Sanctus and the Kyrie, it too was taken over by the choir. It was imported into the Roman rite as late as the eleventh century. At a high (sung) mass, the priest intones the opening words, then recites it through and sits while the choir completes it

16-23. The Offertory [8]  In the early church, members of the congregation brought real gifts, later only bread and wine, and rather than bringing them with them, they eventually handed them over in advance. This is an example of organic development, natural change, without there being a clear, conscious break in practice.^[9], It was from these gifts that the elements for consecration and communion were taken. While they were being arranged on the altar, the choir sang the Offertory psalm. There was originally a formal Offertory Procession but it disappeared presumably because the congregation no longer brought gifts to the altar themselves. In the middle ages, the mass acquired the Offertory prayers,[10],wiich unlike the older prayers had never been said aloud, being from the start private prayers of the priest.

27:  Preface [11]iThe proper Prefaces belong to the oldest stratum of the mass: the distinctive dialogue introducing it and the joyous prayer of thanksgiving and praise are documented as early as the first part of the second century. The opening is identical for 13 of the 15 Prefaces in the 1962 missal.It ends with a reference to joining our voices to the heavenly chorus praising God: ‘canimus sine fine dicentes’ ... as we sing a hymn to your glory, ceaselessly saying… with variations for Lent, for example. 

 28: Sanctus[All of the endings of the Preface lead directly into the Sanctus, inherited from the prayers of the synagogue, and based on an account of a vision in Isaiah 6:3. The Latin text retains the Hebrew sabaoth (of armies), an Old Testament name for God, stressing his power; and hosanna, in the phrase '‘Hosanna in excelsis’ (Hosanna in the highest), used in acclaiming God, (literally: Save us, we pray!). Like the Benedictus, ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini!’  Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord!, it is taken from the cries of the crowd in the gospel account of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem as a peaceful messiah on Palm Sunday,: 

29-34: The Canon^[xiii]Originally this core prayer of the mass began with the dialogue before the Preface, but the insertion of the Sanctus after the Preface effectively cut off the dialogue and the variable Preface which follows it. That is why those prayers and the Sanctus itself are still said aloud, so the 'silent Canon’, imported from Asia via France in the eighth century, begins only after the Sanctus, with the prayer Te igitur.. The Canon’s form was reportedly finalised by Pope Gregory I himself at the turn of the sixth to the seventh centuries. The prayer Quam oblationem opens the oldest part, and already its distinctive style was evident, probably at some time in the fourth century, given that the liturgical language was Greek until the second half of that century): the sequences of verbs (3) and adjectives (2), and the rhetorical use of synonyms or near-synonyms (5!):

Quam oblationem tu Deus, in omnibus quaesumus, benedictam, adscriptam, ratam, rationabilemque acceptabilimque facere digneris; ut nobis corpus et sanguis fiat dilectissimi FIli tui ... etc. (The underlined words are accompanied by making the sign of the cross over the host and chalice)  Which offering, O God, we ask you to deign to bless, approve and ratify in every respect, making it worthy and acceptable, so that it may become for us the body and blood of your most beloved Son etc

Supplices rogamus ac petimus’ (an adjective and two verbs all meaning more or less the same thing): 'in supplication we ask and beseech [you] to bless

Haec dona, hac munera, haec sancta sacrificia illibata’ three nouns, two of them synonyms, all referring to the same objects, the bread and wine to be consecrated, these gifts, these presents, these holy, spotless sacrifices.  Read these sentences out loud for an idea of the part rhythm plays in the Latin of the mass.^[xiv]

36. The Pater Noster (Our Father) [xv] has featured in the mass since the fourth century, eventually settling in its present place, at the start of the section culminating in the Communion thanks to a decision of Pope Gregory the Great at the start of the seventh century. Occupying since then a place of honour immediately after the Canon, it was additionally highlighted by being reserved to the celebrant, (the people’s role being confined to saying the final phrase as a response), and by the introductory words underlining the prayer’s supreme dignity, as having been taught to us by Our Lord.  With the advent of the dialogue mass the congregation once more joined the celebrant in saying or singing the whole prayer.

39. Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)[xvi Introduced into the Roman mass in the seventh century to accompany the fraction (breaking) of the bread and threatened with redundancy once flat hosts replaced everyday loaves towards the end of the first millennium, it was probably saved by its position. The third response, originally the same as the first two, miserere nobis (‘have mercy on us’) became during the tenth and eleventh centuries, dona nobis pacem (‘Grant us peace’), probably under the influence of the Kiss of Peace. An exmple of adaptation and natural change.

40. Prayer for Peace  Beginning with Jesus’ words to his disciples in John’s account of his final meal with them: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you’ (John 15: 27).  It originated in the tenth century in Germany, eventually being included in the Roman Missal in 1570, replacing the Kiss of Peace (item 40a).(17). Perhaps influenced by the preceding Agnus Dei, like the two following prayers it deviates from the normal restrained practice of the Roman mass by addressing Jesus directly rather than through the Father.Hence the closing formula, ‘Qui vivis et regnas Deus ... ‘You) who live and reign, God. etc.. in place of             :Per Jesum Christum ... Qui vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus ... ‘Through Jesus Christ ... who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God

40a. The Kiss of Peace ¹⁸ This ancient feature of the liturgy, attested in the second century, has had a varied history. It was exchanged originally by those who were to take Holy Communion, then by the whole congregation. Initially restricted to those next to you, from about the year 1000 AD it was passed from person to person throughout the church, beginning with the celebrant, who sometimes kissed the altar, the mass book or even the host first. Later in the middle ages it was restricted to the celebrant and the deacon in sung masses.  Its disappearance from the mass as far as the people was concerned, was, according to Jungmann, mainly because in the rigidly-structured society of the time, it frequently led to unseemly quarrels about status and precedence. It was also at least partly discontinued on moral grounds, as the kiss was supposed to be a real one, with, if not on, the mouth. A physical kiss gave way in many parts of Europe to an ingenious but bizarre English invention of the thirteenth century: called rather primly a ‘pax-board’, its Latin name ‘osculatorium’ states what it was for (the verb osculor means ‘to kiss’). It was passed from the priest to the other ministers on the altar, then to the people to be kissed. The troublesome Kiss was eventually replaced by the beautiful Prayer for Peace.

49-52. Closing rites 

The original ending of the mass was the dismissal ‘Ite missa est’/R. Deo gratias’, but a law of complication and prolongation operated over the years. The cluttered picture was completed in 1485 by the inclusion in the Roman mass of the prologue to St John’s gospel, hitherto a prayer said by the celebrant after mass.                 This ‘Last Gospel’ was subsequently retained in the Roman Missal of 1570. It comes after both the dismissal and blessing which are separated by one final ‘apology’ in which the priest takes yet another opportunity to ask that the sacrifice he has celebrated may be acceptable. That prayer ‘Placeat tibi’ was added to accompany the priest’s closing kiss of the altar, in parallel to his opening kiss. It originated in the Frankish mass during the ninth century. When a final blessing became normal after the twelfth century, it was sometimes placed before that last prayer, and sometimes after..