or
Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
or
Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
or
Go in peace.
Thanks be to God.
Following Communion, a period of silent prayer is observed, and a hymn of praise may be sung. The brief after Prayer after Communion brings the Communion Rite to a close. Then come the brief concluding rites, which include the greeting, now repeated for the fourth time: “The Lord be with you.” “And with your spirit.” The greeting is followed by a blessing and the dismissal.
The dismissal, spoken or chanted by the priest or by the deacon, if present, is an ancient part of the Mass. The earliest liturgical records use the words “Go in peace,” words Jesus himself used. In Rome, the formula “Ite, missa est” was used in the liturgy as in other gatherings—it means, literally, “go, you are dismissed” or “go, it is the dismissal.” Farther north, the words “Benedicamus Domino,” “Let us bless the Lord,” were used. The response to both was “Deo gratias,” “Thanks be to God.”
The Third Edition of the Roman Missal revises the dismissal formulas. Some familiar words are gone—the new Missal does not include “The Mass is ended, go in peace,” or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Instead, “Ite, missa est” is now translated, “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” Two quite new formulas have been added. “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” is based in Scripture, and recalls the great commission Christ gave to his disciples after the Resurrection: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). The commission given to the Apostles is ours as well.
The third option, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” was composed by Pope Benedict XVI. It also speaks of the evangelizing mission of the entire assembly. In 2005, in a speech to bishops gathered for the Synod on the Eucharist, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the profound meaning of the dismissal rite.
In the pre-Christian use of the words, Ite, missa est, it was only a formula to say: "The assembly is over, it has ended". The Roman liturgy has chosen these words to say: "Our assembly is now ended". Little by little, however, this has taken on a deeper significance. In ancient Rome, it only meant: "It is finished". "Missa" meant "dismissal". Today, it is no longer "dismissal" but is "mission", since this assembly is not a technical, bureaucratic one, but is a being together with the Lord who touches our hearts and gives us a new life. …I return once more to the "Ite, Missa est". Many modern translations have added to this sober phrase of the Roman rite the closing phrase of the Byzantine rite: "Go in peace". … We are aware that this peace of Christ is not a static one, a kind of "rest"; rather, it is a dynamic peace that wishes to transform the world so that it is a world of peace enlivened by the presence of the Creator and Redeemer. (Pope Benedict XVI, October 22, 2005)
This is the last in the series about the texts of the new Roman Missal. Are there missing pieces that you would like to hear more about? Please comment or e-mail and let me know!
