Before the priest proclaims the Gospel reading of the day, he says several prayers. The first is:
Munda cor meum ac labia mea, omnípotens Deus, qui labia Isaíæ Prophétæ cálculo mundasti igníto: ita me tua grata miseratióne dignáre mundáre, ut sanctum Evangelium tuum digne váleam nuntiáre. Per Christum, Dóminum nostrum. Amen.Which I translate as:
Cleanse my heart and my lips, O almighty God, Who didst cleanse the lips of the prophet Isaiah with a burning coal: Deign to cleanse me by Thy pleasing mercy in such a way that I may worthily be able to proclaim Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The prayer is an allusion to Isaiah 6, 6-7, when an angel takes a live coal from the altar and touches it to the lips of Isaiah in order to cleanse him from his sins. The prayer uses the same word for “live coal” as the Vulgate, calculus. It is an odd choice, for a calculus in Latin was never used for a coal, let alone a live one. (The prayer at least adds ignito to designate the coal as burning; the Vulgate simply has calculus with no adjective.) In Latin, a calculus is a small stone that had several different uses. Demosthenes put calculi in his mouth to learn to articulate better; calculi were used to cast votes (white for Aye and black for Nay); and the Thracians used white calculi to commemorate happy days and black calculi to mark misfortunes. And of course calculi were used on counting-boards, which is why we now have the word calculator. [1] During the four other times that the Vulgate uses calculus, it is with these more conventional meanings in mind. [2]
Finally, it is difficult to translate the word play between “deign” (dignare) and “worthily” (digne). If God deigns to purify the priest, the priest will be dignified.
Jube Domine Benedicere
When the priest is celebrating a Low Mass or Missa cantata, he prays: Jube, Dómine, benedícere or “Pray, Lord, give a blessing.”
But at a Solemn High Mass, the deacon—who is about to chant the Gospel—says to the priest: Jube, Domne, benedicere or “Pray, sir, give a blessing.”
The priest blesses the deacon at a Solemn High Mass
There is literally one iota’s difference between the two prayers. When the prayer is addressed to Christ, Dominus is used; when it is addressed to the priest, Domnus is used. Dominus, which is derived from a root that indicates for conquering or subduing, often had negative, despotic connotations in Republican Rome, but it was one of the titles of the Emperor beginning with Augustus Caesar. For the Gospels to call Jesus Christ Dominus or Lord was thus seen as a rebellious act.
Domnus, on the other hand, was a Christian invention (it appears on ancient Roman inscriptions, but only as a syncopation of Dominus). It was precisely because Jesus is Lord that it felt strange calling anyone else by that title. Greek Christians thus abbreviated Kyrios to Kyros and Latin Christians abbreviated Dominus to Domnus, with the latter reserved to persons of authority. Thus, in the Litany of the Saints, the Pope is called the Apostolic Master, Domnus Apostolicus. The custom went on to give rise to other titles such as Dom or Don. [3]
The use of jube fits this noble or regal atmosphere nicely, for jubeo/jubere can to mean to order or command, to decree or enact, although here it is more supplicatory, meaning to bid or pray.
Dominus Sit in Corde Meo
Dóminus sit in corde meo et in labiis meis: ut digne et competenter annuntiem Evangelium suum. Amen.
Which I translate as:
May the Lord be in my heart and on my lips, that I may worthily and competently proclaim His holy Gospel. Amen.At a Solemn Mass the wording is changed so that the priest may bless the deacon: “The Lord be in thy heart on thy lips...”
The blessing has the same main petition as the Munda cor meum (cleansing and worthiness), but it shifts the imagery of lips from cleansing to competence. The prayer asks for God on the heart so that the deacon or priest may be (morally) worthy of the honor of proclaiming the Gospel, and it asks for God on the lips so that the deacon or priest may be technically competent to do so, reading the right words, hitting the right notes, and so forth. Both dimensions are important in order to fulfill one’s ecclesiastical office, and indeed, something similar can be said for other walks of life as well. Moral rectitude and professional mastery are good things to have.
The priest then dialogues with the faithful.
℣. Dóminus vobiscum.℟. Et cum spíritu tuo.P. Sequentia (vel Initium) sancti Evangelii secundum N.℟. Gloria tibi, Dómine.
Which is typically translated as:
℣. The Lord be with you.℟. And with thy spirit.P. The continuation (or beginning) of the holy Gospel according to N.℟. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
For the “Epistle” reading, whether it is from the Old Testament or the New, the lector calls the passage he is about to read as a Lectio (a reading), but the deacon or priest who proclaims the Gospel describes the passage he is about to read or chant by whether it is at the beginning of one of the four canonical Gospels or somewhere thereafter--the one exception being during Holy Week, when the word Passio is used instead of Sequentia for the Passion narratives of the four Evangelists.
The subdeacon reading the Epistle
The reason for the use of Lectio at the Epistle, Saint Isidore of Seville explains, is that the reading was originally recited while the Gospel was always chanted. [4] Even in the 1962 Missal the “chant” that accompanies the Epistle is halfway between speaking and singing, a kind of recto tono; and the priest at a Missa cantata has the option of reading rather than chanting the Epistle. The Gospel, on the other hand, has a more elaborate chant, a testimony to its greater importance.
Finally, the congregation responds with Gloria tibi, Domine. At other times, when the priest addresses the people, the people address the priest, as with Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo. Here, however, the faithful are so grateful for and gleeful about the annunciation of the Gospel that, forgetful of their manners, they glorify God rather than thank the priest or wish him well. As Sicard, Bishop of Cremona (1155–1215) writes:
God’s glory and ours are treated in the Gospel, namely, that He has conquered the devil and the Victor ascended unto the glory of God the Father; which redeems us and promises us greater things. Therefore, hearing the mention of the Gospel, we turn to the East and we exclaim in praise of the Creator: Glory be to Thee, O Lord! It is as if we were saying: “What is preached in the Gospel, let us also believe in and hope in. May it benefit us, may it come forth to us, may it remain with us forever! Furthermore, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name belongs, and will belong, glory, and so the people glorify God who has sent us the word of salvation and wrought redemption for His people, according to what it says in the Acts of the Apostles, “And they have glorified God.” (11,18) [5]
Notes
[1] See “calcŭlus, i,” Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary (Clarendon Press, 1879), 268.
[2] See 2 Kings 17,13; Prov. 20,17; Ecclus. 18,18; Rev. 2,17.
[3] See Rev. Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained (Herder, 1902), 473, n. 1.
[4] Lectio dicitur quia non cantatur ut psalmus vel hymnus, sed legitur tantum. Illic enim modulatio, hic sola pronuntiatio quaeritur (Etymologies 1.6.19.9).
[5] Respondet populus: Gloria tibi, Domine. In Evangelio agitur de gloria Dei et nostra, scil. quod diabolum vicit et victor ad gloriam Dei Patris ascendit; quod nos redemit et nobis majora promisit. Audientes igitur Evangelii mentionem, nos ad Orientem vertimus et exclamamus in laudem Creatoris: Gloria tibi, Domine quasi dicamus: Quod in Evangelio praedicatur, et nos credimus et speramus, nobis proficiat, nobis eveniat, sine fine permaneat. Et exinde: Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo inest et inerit gloria, et ita populus glorificat Deum qui
misit nobis verbum salutis et fecit redemptionem plebis suae, juxta quod in Act. Apost. (11, 18) dicitur: Et glorificaverunt Deum (Sicardus Cremonensis, Mitrale sive de officiis ecclesiasticis Summa, 1.3.4; quoted in Gihr, 475, n. 1).
