Chapter II (Cont.): The Holy Eucharist (Pages 280 to 289)

²⁸⁰  Here the statement is made that we are now in the fullest sense in direct touch with the Lord Christ Himself.  We express our hope and our belief that by following this, the line of development directed by the Church, we may soon draw nearer still; as is written in the Scripture, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and when we wake up in His likeness, we shall we satisfied with it.  Then a hint is given of a yet further advancement beyond even that, when through Him we shall be brought face to face with the glory of the Father.


COMMUNIO

ROMAN	LIBERAL
The Communio varies. That which follows is of Trinity Sunday.      We bless the God of heaven, and we will praise him before all living; because he hath shown his mercy to us.	Amen.   Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.   Amen.      P. The Lord be with you.      C. And with thy spirit.

      The whole congregation now joins in a splendid outburst of thanksgiving, the force generated by which is poured outwards and upwards by the Angels.  Then the Priest pronounces again the Minor Benediction, endeavouring once more to share with his people the new and higher conditions which have now been set up.  The idea is also present that those who have actually taken the sacred Body and Blood should through this Minor Benediction share yet again the ²⁸¹blessing which they have received with those who for some reason have not taken it, though present at the sacrifice.  And yet, again, beyond that is the idea of sharing with outsiders not present in church at all, and the thought (expressed also in the next prayer) of the necessity of employing in definite practice the strength which has been received.

POSTCOMMUNIO

ROMAN	LIBERAL
The Postcommunio varies. That which follows is of Trinity Sunday.      Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that, filled with so great gifts, we may both receive graces for our salvation and may never cease from thy praise.  Through or Lord.	We who have been refreshed with Thy heavenly gifts, do pray Thee, O Lord, that Thy grace may be so grafted inward- ly in our hearts, that it may continually be made manifest in our lives.  Through Christ our Lord.   R. Amen.

      We have here an interesting little prayer that the wondrous stimulus which we have received may not evaporate in mere feeling, but may so continue to do its work within us as to affect the whole of our future lives.  And this is no mere empty form of words, for (as I have already said) if the fullest advantage has been taken of the outpouring of spiritual force a permanent balance to the good is unquestionably left, even after the overflowing tide of temporary enthusiasm has ebbed back to the prosaic level of ordinary life.  Indeed, for the Christian who regularly and frequently ²⁸²enters thus into high communion with his Lord, ordinary life soon ceases to be prosaic, for it is lived under the continuous radiance of the light that never was on sea or land, the effect of one great outburst of sunlight persisting until it is renewed by the next.

      This prayer fills a part analogous to the action of "locking" a talisman after it had been magnetized, in order that the force which has been stored in that talisman may not be prodigally and uselessly dissipated, but may radiate in a steady flow, so that it may continue to do its appointed work for many years.

ROMAN

LIBERAL

V. The Lord be with you       R. And with thy spirit.       Then either:        V. Ite, missa est.        Or        V. Benedicamus Domino.        R. Deo gratias        May my worship and bounden duty be pleasing unto thee, O holy Trinity: and grant that the sacrifice which I have offered all unworthy in the sight of thy majesty may be received by thee and win forgiveness from thy mercy for me and for all those for whom I have offered it up.  Though Christ our Lord. Amen

P. The Lord be with you.        C. And with thy spirit.        P. Ite, missa est.        C. Deo gratias.

      The last instance of the Minor Benediction immediately precedes the mystic words: Ite, missa est, by ²⁸³which the end of the magical part of the ceremony is announced.  There have been various theories as to the exact meaning of this, all based upon the idea that the words are addressed to the people.  The explanation usually accepted is that missa is a late Latin form of missio, originally signifying merely dismissal.  In the primitive Church the catechumens were sent away with these words before the Canon, and so it is thought that a custom arose of repeating them again for the faithful at the end of the whole Service: "Go, it is the dismissal."

      In reality the phrase is addressed, not to the congregation, but to the great host of Angel messengers who have gathered round to take their part in this most wonderful of acts.  It is, as it were, their word of dismissal, their formal release from the service to which they have been devoting themselves.  It is the signal for a splendid exodus of majestic rainbow-coloured forms, each charged with his proportion of the divine outpouring, and hastening to fulfil the mission entrusted to him.  Since there seems so much doubt about its translation, it is perhaps as well to leave it in the picturesque uncertainty of the original Latin.

      The people respond with all heartiness: "Thanks be to God," thus again finally expressing their gratitude to the holy angels who have given us such wondrous help, as well as to Him who sent them.  We may somewhat fancifully interpret the phrase, along with the Minor Benediction immediately preceding it, as having a sort of meaning for the congregation as ²⁸⁴well; it is as though the celebrant said to them: "Go now; but as you are about to leave, draw yet again as close as you can to receive the final outpouring of God's blessing."

      Now that it has done its beneficent work, the Directing Angel sweeps together the material of the mighty edifice which he has been using as his instrument, so that all the love and devotion which have gone to the building of it are shed abroad upon the world, along with the benediction with which the celebrant immediately thereafter concludes the Service.  He turns to the people and says:


SECOND RAY BENEDICTION

ROMAN	LIBERAL
May God almighty bless you.      The Priest turns towards the People.      Father, Son +, and Holy Ghost,   R. Amen.	The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son, Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always.   R. Amen.

      This beautiful blessing is taken from the Communion Service of the Church of England.  It was borrowed by the compilers of that Prayer Book from the Churching Office of the Roman Ritual and enlarged by a quotation from the Epistle to the Philippians.  It was certainly a happy inspiration, for it has proved an appropriate and effective ending to many ²⁸⁵Services.  It has a strong keynote of peace and sympathy, and it spreads its influence over the people on waves of lovely delicate rose-coloured and green, When given by a bishop, it has additional beauties; but it is always one of the impressive and dramatic points of any Service in which it is used.

      It is essentially a blessing of the second Ray, and so a most appropriate conclusion to a ceremony which has definitely the character of that Ray; and it makes the Service end, as it began, with the Name of the ever-blessed Trinity.  In Roman and Anglican Services, as soon as this is done the Directing Angel, with a graceful gesture of farewell, disappears from the scene of his labours.  We have, however, found it useful in our Service to add to it a further blessing of different character, belonging to the first Ray--the Ray of Power; so the angel waits yet a few moments longer to give this special blessing in the Name of the spiritual King.



FIRST RAY BENEDICTION


LIBERAL

             May the Holy Ones, whose pupils you aspire to become, show you the Light you seek, give you the strong aid of their compassion and Their wisdom.  There is a peace that passeth understanding; it abides in the hearts of those who live in the Eternal; there is a power that maketh all things new; it lives and moves in those who know the Self as One.  May that peace brood over you, that power uplift you, till you stand where the One Initiator is invoked, till you see His Star shine forth.   R. Amen.


      This is not used, so far as we are aware, in any other Liturgy, but its effect is wonderfully invigorating. ²⁸⁶The Holy Ones are of course the Great White Brotherhood, the communion of the Saints.  All of us who are striving to press forward along the upward path to perfection desire to put ourselves under their tutelage; and so the Priest sends forth a fervent aspiration that we may be able to learn from Them the Diving Wisdom which we need.  The One Initiator is a title given to the Head of that great Hierarchy, the chief representative of that first Ray upon earth.  The silver Star is His sign, and its shining forth is a token of His approval of a candidate for one of the Initiations which lead from degree to degree in that great Lodge, from step to step on that upward path.

      This is then a prayer that all present may attain the sublime heights to which they aspire, and that on the way to such attainment the divine peace and strength may support them.  The flood which it pours over the congregation is of many colours, among which an electric blue is perhaps predominant, but all are strongly suffused with a glorious golden light, and dazzling silvery rays dart constantly through its stream.  When it is spoken, clairvoyants have sometimes caught the gleam of the Star upon the forehead of the Angel as he stands above the head of the celebrant.

      Here our Service ends with a recessional hymn, but the Roman Mass adds the Last Gospel.  This is not found in any of the earlier Liturgies, but was inserted in its present place by Pope Pius V in 1570.  Before that time it was sometimes said as a private devotion by Priests after Mass, and the Sarum Missal ²⁸⁷prescribes it to be recited during the procession back to the sacristy.  Even now a Bishop says it privately while returning to his throne after the conclusion of the Service.


THE LAST GOSPEL


ROMAN

       + The beginning of the Holy Gospel according to John.
      In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men: and the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men might believe through him.  He was not the light, but was to bear witness of the light.  That was the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  But as many as received him, to them he gave power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name; who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
      Here all kneel.
      And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
      R. Thanks be to God.


      This is clearly not a necessary part of the Service, but perhaps we may account for it somewhat in this fashion.  Once more by means of the Minor Benediction the Priest makes his final link with his people before he reads the last Gospel--a lection which comes not inopportunely to remind them of the source of all this beauty and this glory.  It is as though he said to ²⁸⁸them: "Now that you have God's blessing, yet once more share it to the full and let us preserve it, never forgetting that we owe it all to the mighty Logos whose glory we have now beheld, the Light and Life of men.  Many there are who know not God, and in their ignorance are therefore ungrateful; but you have now experienced His sweetness and His love; see to it that you never forget it."

NOTE

       The beautiful words referring to Initiation which commence "Under the veil of earthly things," wake the people on to the physical plane again, and they begin to feel their way back to collective action; but now, with the wonderful stimulus of the Host acting from within them, their aspirations, rise coloured, as all this last part of the Service seems to be, with gold and rose.  These are the colours which, when fully waked and roused to a final effort of praise, the congregation send streaming up and out through the openings of the edifice at the Communio.  This is a very wonderful uprush because of the power of the Host working in the congregation, and the response to it is proportionally fine.  The celebrant immediately spreads out this downpouring by the Minor Benediction, which glows most gloriously, and this time with gold rather than primrose.

       Every one's connections with his higher self are not fully opened, and at the Post Communio this condition is strengthened, for a curious sort of white substance seems to come down into the communicating channels, so as to hold them open.  This ensures that the power of the Host within the man will have a clear path down which it can act, through each person who has partaken of it, as a powerful radiating centre on to the world in general.  But though this substance keeps the channel between the lower and higher parts of the person open, it also has a second function of preventing too sudden an outrush of power in a way that might prove less effective than its conserved and gradual distribution.  This is what is meant when this part of the Service is compared to the locking of a talisman.

       A great flood of power rushes down into all present; this is specially the case with the celebrant, who therefore immediately ²⁸⁹shares it with the congregation in the following Dominus Vobiscum.

      With the words Deo Gratias, a great wave of thankfulness goes up to the Angels, who, as a parting gift, send back a fine stream in response.  This is caught by the celebrant and poured out during the final benediction, along with the power and material of which the whole eucharistic edifice was constructed, which, as it is broken up, dissolves into great streams of rushing force and a mighty shower of countless myriads of tiny snowflakes--not white only, but of every imaginable bright colour, which fall as gently as confetti, spreading benediction wherever they go.

Forward to pages 290 to 299