Memorial Acclamation

Priest:  The mystery of faith.

People:
We proclaim your Death, O Lord,
and profess your Resurrection
until you come again.

or
When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup,
we proclaim your Death, O Lord,
until you come again.

or
Save us, Savior of the world,
for by your Cross and Resurrection
you have set us free.

The Memorial Acclamation is the name given to the brief sung or spoken response the assembly makes following the words of consecration. Before the reforms of the Council, the Eucharistic Prayer was said quietly by the priest, the people following along through his ritual gestures like genuflections, signs of the cross, and, above all, the elevations of host and chalice. With the Council reforms, the people’s participation was a priority, and acclamations now punctuate the Eucharistic Prayer: the entire assembly joins in singing the Sanctus, the Memorial Acclamation, and the Amen.

After the words of consecration, the priest sings or says “mystery of faith,” which refers both to what has come before—obedient to Christ’s command, the words have been spoken that change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ—and to the words with which the people now respond, words which encapsulate the saving mystery of Christ, who died and who rose and who will come again. In different ways, each of these acclamations speak what it means to do what we do, in this and every Mass – in celebrating the Eucharist we are recalling Christ’s passion. As St. Paul said (in words that are echoed in Option B): “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (I Corinthians 11:23).

The Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council encourages the regional conferences of bishops to compose new prayers, and the 1974 Sacramentary included a fourth option for the Memorial Acclamation, based on what will be option A in the new Missal: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” It is a stunningly simple expression of what we believe, and rapidly became the most frequently used acclamation for English-speaking Catholics. But it is not included in the third edition because it is not in the Latin text, and also because it is not addressed to Christ, and therefore does not involve us in Christ’s saving action in the same way as the others.