Embolism and Doxology after the Lord’s Prayer are the Roman Mass texts in which the priest develops the final petition for deliverance and the people conclude with an acclamation of God's kingdom, power, and glory.
Structure of the rite
After the priest's invitation, priest and people together recite or sing the Lord's Prayer. The priest alone then adds the embolism, which expands the petition to be delivered from evil by asking peace, freedom from sin and distress, and hope in the coming of Christ. The people answer with the doxology, acclaiming the kingdom, power, and glory of God.
The invitation, the Lord's Prayer, the embolism, and the doxology form one ordered sequence and are all said or sung aloud. The people do not join the priest in the embolism, and the priest does not appropriate the people's concluding acclamation as a private line. Differentiated voices express the communion of the one worshiping assembly.
Embolism
Embolism comes from a Greek word for an insertion or addition. In this context it does not mean an arbitrary interpolation: it is the Missal's fixed development of deliver us from evil. Its petitions place daily Christian need within eschatological expectation, asking protection and peace while the Church awaits the blessed hope and the coming of the Savior.
Doxology
A doxology gives glory to God. The acclamation beginning For the kingdom is not treated in the Roman Mass as though it were another petition silently appended to the biblical prayer. It is the people's liturgical response to the priest's embolism, and its placement should not be confused with textual traditions that print a similar doxology as part of the Lord's Prayer itself.[1]
Theological movement
The Lord's Prayer asks for daily bread, understood preeminently in relation to the Eucharistic bread, and for purification from sin before Holy Communion. The embolism widens the final petition to the peace and protection of the whole community. The doxology answers that hope by confessing God's reign and power rather than human self-deliverance.
This sequence stands within the Communion Rite before the prayer for peace, the sign of peace where given, the Fraction Rite, and Communion. It should not be detached as a performance piece or moved to another location, because the Missal's order connects deliverance, peace, unity, breaking of the bread, and sacramental reception.
Liturgical discipline
Musical settings may serve the rite when they preserve the approved words, assigned voices, and forward movement. Repeating the doxology for musical effect, inviting the assembly into the priest's embolism, or omitting the acclamation changes the structure established by the Roman Missal and is not justified by local familiarity.[2]
References
- 1.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — The authoritative structure and rubrics of Mass, including memorial commemorations and Masses chosen for serious needs
- 2.Sacrosanctum Concilium — Vatican II teaching on liturgical prayer, full participation, the Divine Office, and the reform of the Psalter