As we pray to Jesus, Who is now with us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity after Holy Communion, the priest carefully purifies the sacred vessels. Then he quietly prays, “What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.” We, too, might make this our post-Communion prayer, for it reminds us that the Eucharist is our medicine and our purification, our hope and our greatest gift, given to us through the grace of God Who loves us more than we can imagine.
The priest sits for a short time. Then he invites us to rise, and he says one more prayer, based on the liturgical season, that reminds us of the miracle and grace we have just received in the Eucharist. The priest says once again, “The Lord be with you.” And truly the Lord is with us very intimately at this moment, for His Eucharistic presence is still in our bodies for about fifteen minutes after we receive Him. We respond, “And with your spirit.”
Depending on the liturgical season or solemnity, the priest will sometimes pray an extended blessing over us, to which we answer with a firm “Amen.” Then he makes the sign of the cross as a final blessing, and we trace the sign of the cross on our own bodies and say, once again, “Amen.” We started the Mass with the sign of the cross, and now we finish with the same prayer, reminding us once again of the Blessed Trinity and of Jesus’ command to take up our crosses and follow Him.
Finally, the priest announces, “Go forth, the Mass is ended,” or a variation on that. We respond, “Thanks be to God.” We must now go forth, out into the world, but we take Jesus with us. We take the graces we have received, the lessons we have learned, and the inspiration we have discovered, and we go out into the world that so desperately needs God. We are sent forth like the apostles to preach the Gospel in our words and actions and to allow Jesus to work through us.
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