§ 97. THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST. 515
room of Thy holy and glorious Zion on tlie day of Pentecost: Send ("!own, O Lord, the same Holy Ghost npon us and upon these holy gifts here present, that with His holy and good and glorious presence He may sanctify this bread and make it the holy body of Thy Christ.'
People: Amen.
Priest: And this cup the dear blood of Thy Christ.
Pccyple: Amen.
Priest (in a low voice) : That they may avail to those who receive them, for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life, for the sanctification of soul and body, for the bringing forth of good works, for the strengtheoing of Thy holy Catholic church which Thou hast built upon the rock of ftiith, that the gates of hell may not prevail against her ; delivering her from all error and all scandal, and from the ungodly, and preserving her unto the consummation of all things."
After the act of consecration come the intercessions., sometimes very long, for the church, for all classes, for the living, and for the dead from righteous Abel to Mary, the apostles, the martyrs, and the saints in Paradise ; and finally the Lord's Prayer. To the several intercessions, and the Lord's Prayer, the people or the choir responds Amen. "With this closes the act of eueharistic sacrifice.
I^ow follows the communion^ or the participation of the consecrated elements. It is introduced with the words : " Holy things for holy persons,'"' and the Kyrie eleison, or (as in the Clementine liturgy) the Gloria in Excelsis : " Glory be to God on high, peace on earth, and good will to men.' Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord : God is the Lord, and he hath appeared among us." The bishop and the clergy communicate fii'st, and then the people. The formula of distribution in the Clementine liturgy is simply : " The body of Christ ; " " The blood of Clirist, the cup of life," * to which the receiver answers '■'■Amen.'^^ In other liturgies it is longer.^
* "lea . . . ayiaarj koI iroirjar) rhv ^iv &prov tuvtov ffu>na ayiov rov Xpicrrov ffov.
* Ta ayia rui's ayiois, Sancta Sanctis. It is a warning to the unworthy not to Rpproach the table of the Lord.
' According to the usual reading fV avStpoiirois evSoKia. But the older and better attested reading is euSoKias, which alters the sense and makes the angelic hymn bimenibris: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of His good pleasure (i. e., the chosen people of God).
* "^do/J-O. XpltTToC Al/J-a XpiffToD, TTOTTjpiOV {^Ol^"!.
' In the Liturgy of St. Mark: 2,wfji.a S,yiov — aT/mo, riixiov rod Kvpiov Kal 9fov kJ
Ol6 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Tlie holy act closes with prayers of thanksgiving, psalnift and the benediction.
The Eucharist was celebrated daily, or at least everv Sunday. The people were exhorted to frequent communion, especially on the high festivals. In North Africa some communed every day, others every Sunday, others still less frequently.' Augustine leaves this to the needs of every believer, but Bays in one place : " The Eucharist is our daily bread," The daily communion was connected with the current mystical interpretation of the fourth petition in the Lord's Prayer. Basil communed four times in the week. Gennadius of Massilia commends at least weekly communion. In the East it secma to have been the custom, after the fourth century, to commune only once a year, or on great occasions. Chrysostom often complains of the indifference of tliose who come to church only to hear the sermon, or who attend the eucharistic sacrifice, but do not commune. One of his allusions to this neglect we have already quoted. Some later councils threatened all laymen with excommunication, who did not commune at least on Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.
In the Oriental and North African churches prevailed the incongruous custom of infcunt communion, which seemed to follow from infant baptism, and was advocated by Augustine and Innocent I. on the authority of John vi. 53. In the Greek church this custom continues to this day, but in the Latin, after the ninth century, it was disputed or forbidden, because the apostle (1 Cor. xi. 28, 29) requires self-examination as the condition of worthy participation."
With this custom appear the first instances, and they exceptional, of a communio sub una specie ; after a little girl in
SwTTJpo? i})xli>v. In the Mozarabic Liturgy the communicating priest prays : " Corpus et sanguis Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat corpus et animam meam (tuam) in vitam SGternam." Resp. : '■'■ AmeTi!'^ So in the Roman Liturgy, from which it passed into the AngHcan.
' Augustine, Epist. 118 ad Januar. c. 2: "Alii quotidie communicant corpori el eanguini Dominico ; alii ecrtis diebus accijjiunt ; alibi nuHus dies intermittitur quo non ofFeratur ; alii sabbato tantum et dominico ; alibi tantiim dominico."
" Comp. P. Zora: Hlstoria cucharistia) inluntura, Berl. 1736; and the article bj Kling in Uerzog's Encykl. vii. 549 flf.