The Mass: Concluding Rites

Once the Liturgy of the Eucharist concludes with the reposition of the leftover hosts in the tabernacle and the purification of the vessels, we enter into the final portion of the Mass: the Concluding Rites. This is an essential part of the Mass rather than an after-thought. 

This part begins as the priest and the rest of the assembly stands. He offers the invitation “Let us pray.” This Prayer After Communion, different for each Mass based on the week in the liturgical cycle, summarizes all that we have experienced. An unofficial part of the Mass, the announcements (which are a tradition that goes back centuries), occur now, or before the Prayer. 

The priest then offers the Greeting (“The Lord be with you”). In certain special times of the Church year, there will be a solemn blessing, and the deacon will instruct all to bow our heads and say “Amen” after each invocation. The usual Trinitarian Blessing follows. 

The last words of the Mass are actually spoken by the deacon, in the dismissal. He will say one of four phrases: “Go in peace,” “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life,” “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” or “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”  And, after the assembly responds “Thanks be to God,” the deacon and priest kiss the altar and process out of the church, symbolic of our procession from the church back into our daily lives. 

The dismissal is perhaps the most important part of the Mass apart from receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. The old Latin dismissal, Ite Missa est (Go, you are sent), is where we get the word Mass from. The fruits of Holy Communion come to their true fulfillment when we, who have experienced the Real Presence of Jesus at Mass, now bring the truth of the Gospel out to the world, and into action.

“[The purpose of the concluding rites] is to send the people forth to put into effect in their daily lives the paschal mystery and unity in Christ that they have celebrated.”  - Introduction to the Order of the Mass, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, no. 141

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Contact me at eucharist@stmli.org.