Friday, August 7, 2015

"Through whom you continue to make all these good things, O Lord; you sanctify them, fill them with life, bless them, and bestow them upon us."

"Per quem haec omnia, Domine, semper bona creas, sanctificas, vivificas, benedicis, et praestas nobis."

     Eucharistic prayer I, Roman Missal.
     According to Fr. Hunwicke, this line, present in its present context already in the Gelasian sacramentary, does not refer to the Body and Blood, but "originally concluded the blessing of substances brought to the Altar: such as oil . . . and beans" and grapes.  Cf. Jungmann, The Mass (1975), 204:  "The new Canons contain no parallel . . . to the benediction at the words "all these [gifts]' (haec omnia), whose reference is far from clear."  Cf. also Beresford-Cooke, The sign of the cross in the western liturgies, Alcuin Club tracts 7 (London:  Longmans, Green, & Co., 1907), pp. 13 ff.  (And with that, which refers back to De Vert in 1720, we are off and running.)

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