The Final Doxology
To God, the only God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord, be the glory, majesty, authority and power, which he had before time began, now and for ever. Amen (Jude 25).
* * *
In the Roman Canon, we find a short prayer which introduces the doxology: “Through Christ our Lord…you continue to create all these good things, O Lord;” as spiritual nourishment and redemption. “You fill them with life, and make them holy,” by means of the transubstantiation. “You bless them,” because we receive abundant grace through this sacrament; “and bestow them upon us.”
This prayer marks the flow of divine gifts coming down to us through Christ. And then, in the Final Doxology, all praise and honor from the entire creation rise up to God through Christ.
All the Eucharistic Prayers end with the Final Doxology. It is a song of praise to God, beginning from the Preface. The priest takes the chalice and the paten with the host and, lifting them up, sings or says,
Through him, and with him, and in him,
to you, O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
is all honor and glory,
for ever and ever.
These words are said by the priest alone.[1] Taken in part from St Paul (Rom 11:36), they are to be found in the earliest forms of the Anaphora.[2] They are majestic in their simplicity.
Through him: Through Jesus’ mediation, we have access to God. “No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6), Jesus says. He introduces us to his Father, and on his account, the Father hears us favorably, forgives us, and loves us.
With him: We are children of God, through the adoption Christ merited for us, and, as a consequence, we are made his co‑heirs. “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5), he says. With him, our lives will glorify God on the earth. On the altar, Jesus unites us to his perfect obedience. He wants us, throughout the whole day, to be with him in work and in prayer; he wants us to be his companions, in expiation and in apostolate.
In him: There is one and the same life in him and in us. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him” (Jn 6:56), Christ says. So his life flows out into ours; from the Head to us as members of his Mystical Body. Our nothingness, our sins, our miseries are, as it were, absorbed by Christ, and they disappear in his infinite perfection. In him, too, we love our brothers and devote ourselves to their service.
In the unity of the Holy Spirit: The Church is a unity brought together by the Holy Spirit.[3] He joins us together as believers, and gives us the life of grace by which we become children of God. He dwells in us, enabling us to offer the sacrifice of praise to God, together with the entire Church.
* * *
The people’s acclamation Amen is an assent and a conclusion.[4] Our offering, which is Christ’s offering on the cross, calls for a unanimous and enthusiastic Amen.
Already in the third century, the Christian people were granted these privileges: “To hear the Eucharistic Prayer, to acclaim the final Amen, to go to the sacred table, to receive the divine Bread.”[5]
Let us sing or say the Great Amen with all our hearts united to all our brothers. Let it resound the whole world over, as the Amen of our early brothers in the faith “resounded in heaven, as a celestial thunderclap in the Roman basilicas.”[6]
This is the most important Amen in the Mass. It is for us both a resolution and a prayer. It is a resolution upon which our love for God blooms; a prayer based on the future hope of resurrection.
* * *
As the priest holds the paten and chalice, let us remember that Mary also held her Son’s body after the crucifixion. Together with our Mother, Mother of the Church, we unite ourselves to the offering of the Church.
Footnotes:
[1]“On the other hand the assembly does not remain passive and inert: it unites itself to the priest in faith and silence and shows its concurrence by the various interventions provided for in the course of the Eucharistic Prayer: the responses to the Preface dialogue, the Sanctus, the acclamation after the Consecration, and the final Amen after the Per Ipsum [Through him...]. The Per Ipsum itself is reserved to the priest. This Amen especially should be emphasized by being sung, since it is the most important in the whole Mass.” (ID, no. 4); cf. also GIRM3, no. 147 and GIRM, no. 55h in fine.
[2]Cf. Didache (year 110), St Justin (year 150), and the Anaphora of St Hippolytus (he died in 235).
[3]LG, no. 13.
[4]Cf. GIRM, no. 55h; GIRM3, no. 79h.
[5]Dennis of Alexandria (died in 265), in Eusebius, Historia eccl., VII, 9, PG 20,656.
[6]St Jerome, In Gal. Comment.: “ad similitudinem caelestis tonitrui Amen reboat.”
* * *
In the Roman Canon, we find a short prayer which introduces the doxology: “Through Christ our Lord…you continue to create all these good things, O Lord;” as spiritual nourishment and redemption. “You fill them with life, and make them holy,” by means of the transubstantiation. “You bless them,” because we receive abundant grace through this sacrament; “and bestow them upon us.”
This prayer marks the flow of divine gifts coming down to us through Christ. And then, in the Final Doxology, all praise and honor from the entire creation rise up to God through Christ.
All the Eucharistic Prayers end with the Final Doxology. It is a song of praise to God, beginning from the Preface. The priest takes the chalice and the paten with the host and, lifting them up, sings or says,
Through him, and with him, and in him,
to you, O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
is all honor and glory,
for ever and ever.
These words are said by the priest alone.[1] Taken in part from St Paul (Rom 11:36), they are to be found in the earliest forms of the Anaphora.[2] They are majestic in their simplicity.
Through him: Through Jesus’ mediation, we have access to God. “No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6), Jesus says. He introduces us to his Father, and on his account, the Father hears us favorably, forgives us, and loves us.
With him: We are children of God, through the adoption Christ merited for us, and, as a consequence, we are made his co‑heirs. “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5), he says. With him, our lives will glorify God on the earth. On the altar, Jesus unites us to his perfect obedience. He wants us, throughout the whole day, to be with him in work and in prayer; he wants us to be his companions, in expiation and in apostolate.
In him: There is one and the same life in him and in us. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him” (Jn 6:56), Christ says. So his life flows out into ours; from the Head to us as members of his Mystical Body. Our nothingness, our sins, our miseries are, as it were, absorbed by Christ, and they disappear in his infinite perfection. In him, too, we love our brothers and devote ourselves to their service.
In the unity of the Holy Spirit: The Church is a unity brought together by the Holy Spirit.[3] He joins us together as believers, and gives us the life of grace by which we become children of God. He dwells in us, enabling us to offer the sacrifice of praise to God, together with the entire Church.
* * *
The people’s acclamation Amen is an assent and a conclusion.[4] Our offering, which is Christ’s offering on the cross, calls for a unanimous and enthusiastic Amen.
Already in the third century, the Christian people were granted these privileges: “To hear the Eucharistic Prayer, to acclaim the final Amen, to go to the sacred table, to receive the divine Bread.”[5]
Let us sing or say the Great Amen with all our hearts united to all our brothers. Let it resound the whole world over, as the Amen of our early brothers in the faith “resounded in heaven, as a celestial thunderclap in the Roman basilicas.”[6]
This is the most important Amen in the Mass. It is for us both a resolution and a prayer. It is a resolution upon which our love for God blooms; a prayer based on the future hope of resurrection.
* * *
As the priest holds the paten and chalice, let us remember that Mary also held her Son’s body after the crucifixion. Together with our Mother, Mother of the Church, we unite ourselves to the offering of the Church.
Footnotes:
[1]“On the other hand the assembly does not remain passive and inert: it unites itself to the priest in faith and silence and shows its concurrence by the various interventions provided for in the course of the Eucharistic Prayer: the responses to the Preface dialogue, the Sanctus, the acclamation after the Consecration, and the final Amen after the Per Ipsum [Through him...]. The Per Ipsum itself is reserved to the priest. This Amen especially should be emphasized by being sung, since it is the most important in the whole Mass.” (ID, no. 4); cf. also GIRM3, no. 147 and GIRM, no. 55h in fine.
[2]Cf. Didache (year 110), St Justin (year 150), and the Anaphora of St Hippolytus (he died in 235).
[3]LG, no. 13.
[4]Cf. GIRM, no. 55h; GIRM3, no. 79h.
[5]Dennis of Alexandria (died in 265), in Eusebius, Historia eccl., VII, 9, PG 20,656.
[6]St Jerome, In Gal. Comment.: “ad similitudinem caelestis tonitrui Amen reboat.”