Prayer over the People
| Latin name | Oratio super populum |
|---|---|
| Place | Before the dismissal |
| Posture | Priest extends his hands over the people |
Prayer over the People is a Roman Mass formula prayed over the people near the end of the celebration, distinct from the Prayer after Communion and from the multi-invocation form called a solemn blessing.[1]
Place in the concluding rites
The Prayer over the People is an optional or prescribed formula of blessing found in the Roman Missal. After any announcements and the usual greeting, the deacon or, in his absence, the priest may invite the assembly to bow for the blessing. The priest faces the people, extends his hands over them, and sings or says a single prayer to which they answer Amen; the dismissal then follows.
The prayer is not the Prayer after Communion, which concludes the Communion rite and asks that the sacrament bear fruit. Nor is it a second collect or an additional Eucharistic Prayer. Its liturgical address and gesture make it a blessing of the assembled people as they are sent from the celebration, while its text often gathers the character of the day or season into a petition for their life beyond the church building.
Relation to the final blessing
The General Instruction permits the simple blessing to be enriched and expressed by either a Prayer over the People or a solemn blessing on certain days and occasions. A solemn blessing normally contains several invocations, each answered Amen, before the Trinitarian blessing. A Prayer over the People normally has one extended oration and its own concluding formula. They occupy the same ritual choice point but are not two names for one text.
Neither form is Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and neither depends on exposition of the Eucharist. The minister, gesture, responses, and conclusion are governed by the Missal. Improvised good wishes or a themed speech cannot replace the approved formula where the liturgical book prescribes one, although the celebrant may choose among lawful options when the rubrics permit.
Lenten restoration and wider use
The current Roman Missal provides a Prayer over the People for every weekday of Lent, restoring a prominent ancient Roman pattern. On Lenten weekdays it is used as directed by the edition and local norms; elsewhere the Missal supplies forms for particular celebrations and pastoral occasions. The presence of a formula in an older sacramentary does not by itself authorize importing it into a modern celebration apart from the approved book in force.[2]
Other Catholic liturgical traditions have their own dismissal blessings and prayers over the faithful. Similar placement does not make them versions of the Roman oratio super populum. Accurate description identifies the rite and book, and it avoids treating a venerable Roman category as though it were the universal name for every final prayer in every Church sui iuris.
References
- Back to citation General Instruction of the Roman Missal — The authoritative structure, texts, ministries, choices, and rubrics of Mass in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite.
- Back to citation Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar — The universal Roman norms for rank, precedence, calendars, transferred celebrations, and pastoral observance on Sunday.