The Words and Actions that Compose the Mass
Abbe Claude de Vert, O.S.B. Explication Simple, Littérale Et Historique Des Cérémonies De L’église, vol. 1 [2nd edition], 1709. Chapter 3, “On the Words and Actions that Compose the Mass,” pp. 144ff.
Claude de Vert (1645-1708) was a renowned scholar of liturgy in his day and served as Treasurer of the Abbey of Cluny, famed in the Middle Ages for the practice of laus perennis or “unending praise.” Though many of his writings are tinged with the rationalist and reductionist spirit of his age—Gueranger calls him “the apostle of the rationalist spirit”!—his treatises can still teach and inform us, especially about the unique practices of French churches and religious orders.1
In the following excerpt, de Vert shows how many ceremonies of the Mass and Office arise from the interplay between word and gesture, since “men love naturally to represent what they say, and to accompany it with exterior signs, actions, and movements.”
Beyond the principal words and actions of the Mass, the priest often makes gestures of the head, mouth, eyes, and hands, as suggested by certain words he pronounces; other times he also uses words, insofar as the nature of certain actions seems to demand it: so that in the one case he conforms his actions to words, and the other, words to actions.
And so you have what seems to be the basis for all the actions and words of the Mass which I call “accessory” or relating to decorum since they are not fundamental and, so to speak, do not touch the essence of the rite, or even its original and primordial integrity.
The same holds for the rest of the Divine Offices, the administration of the sacraments, the ordination of priests and the consecration of bishops, virgins, and kings, the dedication of churches, the blessing of abbots and abbesses, clocks, and generally all that composes the sensible and exterior cult of our Religion: in every case we can show that either the spoken word has introduced actions, and that certain actions for their part have suggested words. This concourse and perpetual commerce of actions and words, this link of the one with the other, seems to have given rise to the majority of practices, rites, uses, and ceremonies of the Church. Origen, in his fifth homily on the Book of Numbers, seems to attribute all the ceremonies of the Eucharist and Baptism to this principle: “Who could easily explain the reasons for receiving the Eucharist, or for the rites that accompany it, or for those words and gestures, orders, interrogations, and responses that are performed in Baptism?”
But first we must examine the claim in detail with regard to the Mass, which is the subject that we have proposed to treat. We shall speak first about actions that accompany words, then we will come to words that are linked to actions.
Actions that Accompany Words
We have just noted that, according as certain words in the Mass seem to require it, the priest often makes movements, postures, and gestures that have a relation to his speech. These gestures flow from the very things being recited, and are a sort of expressive language that comes to the aid of the words, and say the same thing as they do. In fact, men love naturally to represent what they say, and to accompany it with exterior signs, actions, and movements that are suitable to the subject they are speaking about, which render and express the sense of their words, and that add color, so to speak, to the ideas and things already signified by the words. Such actions give more energy and force to the expressions of the voice, rendering them more animated and understandable.
Origen, speaking about the actions that accompany prayer, puts it this way: “Though one may pray in a thousand different postures, there is no doubt that raising the hands toward heaven is the most proper of all, since this attitude expresses on the body’s exterior the dispositions that ought to animate the soul during prayer.” Thus for many centuries this has been the constant and nearly uniform custom of all the churches, to accompany and to dress, so to speak, the prayers and words of the Mass, with actions and movements that are proper, suitable, and proportionate. According to Suarez, this brings a sort of grace and beauty and pleasing feeling: “As when the priest strikes his breast at the mea culpa of the Confiteor, or joins his hands when saying in unitate or per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum at the end of a prayer, and on many other occasions.”
The same Suarez points out that one of the rules of etiquette is not to hold one hand suspended alone in the air while the other is in movement and occupied in doing something else. And this is in fact forbidden by the rubrics: “When the rubrics tell the priest to place his left hand on his chest while he makes the sign of the Cross with his right hand, the reason for this seems to be purely to ensure a greater decorum.” In another place, he says, “When the priest blesses the bread and wine, he puts his left hand on the altar because in this way his action can be carried out with greater facility and grace. For after all, we need not believe that all the ceremonies of the Mass represent mysteries. There are some that were instituted for no other reason than to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice with decorum, dignity, and all the reverence due to it.” The Cardinal de Richelieu says the same in his Method for Converting Protestants, that “most of the ceremonies have been instituted for the decorous carrying out of the mysteries.”
All this is to say, in a word, that the priest at Mass must relate his actions and movements to his speech, and that the ceremonies should follow the letter of the prayers, and be conformed to the sense and nature of the words. So in fact the majority of the ceremonies of the mass are “speaking ceremonies”: they say what the words signify.
So the priest, in order to link his words with suitable and proportionate movements, sometimes strikes his breast. Again, and for the same reason, when he says the Gloria Patri of the psalm Judica, of the Introit, and the Lavabo, he bows his head in order to render glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by this action, as well as to express the word glory. When saying the quorum reliquiae hic sunt, he places his kiss in the very place where the relics are kept, and his action is determined by the word hic (“here”). At the words in excelsis of the hymn Gloria in excelsis, and at the words Sursum corda in the Preface, he raises his hands on high. Further, in this latter place, not content to raise his hands, in order to express even more the meaning of this adverb, he also raises his voice. The word makes such an impression on him and it is so natural to inflect the voice and the rest of the body to suit one’s speech. At Adoramus te and every other occurrence of the verb adorare (such as the adoratur of the Creed), at Gratias agimus tibi, and at Suscipe deprecationem nostram, he always bows his head, an exterior mark of adoration, gratitude, and submission.
At the words Dominus vobiscum, because of the personal pronoun vobis, he turns to the people and joins his hands at the same time, both to accompany these words with the posture of a suppliant, and to express the conjunction cum (“with”) which signifies union, gathering, togetherness. When he says Oremus, he spreads his arms as if to ask. Likewise at the words Oramus te, Domine, at the words in unitate at the conclusion of Collects, Secrets, and Postcommunions, he simultaneously unites his hands. Likewise at the words in unum of the Creed.
At In spiritu humilitatis, he joins his hands and bows as a sign of humility. At the last words of the Preface, supplici confessione dicentes, motivated by the word supplici, he again assumes the posture of a suppliant, joining his hands and bowing down to say the Sanctus. He does the same at the beginning of the Canon at these words: supplices rogamus ac petimus. At the words Hosanna in excelsis, the priest, till then bowed, rises and straightens himself because of the word in excelsis, which are incompatible with any posture of abasement. At the words et omnium circumstantium of the first Memento, and at ipsis Domine et omnibus in Christo quiescentibus of the second, he spreads his arms as if to designate those whom he has mentioned by the word circumstantium, namely his assistants, and by the demonstrative ipsis, namely the dead for whom he is praying in particular.
At the conclusion per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum of the majority of the Canon’s prayers, he joins his hands as if to make one thing of two, motivated by the word eundem (“the same”). At Hanc igitur oblationem, he extends his hands over the chalice and host as if to point them out, because of the demonstrative hanc (“this”). At ut nobis Corpus et Sanguis fiat dilectissimi Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi of the Quam oblationem, he raises his hands as if to bring them closer to this most dear Son about which he speaks, and then he joins them, as if to embrace him and clasp him in his hands, if possible, in a motion of love and tenderness inspired by the expression dilectissimi Filii tui (“of your most beloved Son”).
Likewise when he recites the Institution narrative, the priest always expresses the sense of the words he utters by some action; thus he imitates everything that Scripture and Tradition tell us Our Lord did when instituting the Eucharist. For example, at accepit panem, he takes the bread, at elevatis oculis in coelum, he raises his eyes to heaven; at gratias agens, he gives thanks and bows his head; at benedixit, he gives a blessing with the sign of the Cross; at accipite, he picks up the bread again. Likewise at the consecration of the chalice. At the word passionis of the prayer Unde et memores, he spreads his arms in the shape of a Cross in order to represent our Savior’s Cross, the principal instrument of the Passion.2 For the same reason and in relation to the word passionis, the priest in Milan kisses the Cross at this point. At Verdun, he merely glances at it. At hac altaris participatione, he participates in the altar by kissing it. To mark this participation even more strongly, at Verdun and Vienne en Dauphiné he kisses the altar on both sides, and at St. Pierre-le-Vif in Sens and elsewhere on both the left, right, and center. At Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso … omnis honor et gloria, he touches and raises the Host and Chalice to show them, because of the demonstrative pronoun ipsum, ipsi.
At the words da propitius pacem of the prayer Libera nos quaesumus, he kisses the paten. Finally, at the concluding words in unitate Spiritus sancti Deus, he seizes the occasion of the word unitate to rejoin and reunite the portion of the Host he is holding in his left hand with the other that is on the paten. When holding the holy ciborium and addressing the communicants, at the words Ecce Agnus Dei he takes one of the hosts and shows it to them, because of the word ecce, a word that is indicative of something that is present.
Further, everywhere the people kneel at the word descendit in the Creed. The very manner in which this ceremony is practiced makes it easy to perceive that it is nothing but the effect of the impression of the word descendit, since kneeling is a sort of descent. Further, in the whole province of Auvergne, at Clermont, Brioude, and among the Norbertines, they only stand up at the word resurrexit: and they execute this to this day with great precision and accuracy. In these churches, the action of standing up is so linked with the word resurrexit that it is not possible not to perceive at one stroke the reason for this movement.
It has already been observed with regard to the actions that accompany the words of Consecration, that at the word benedixit the priest blesses, which is to say, he makes a sign of the Cross. The same thing happens at other forms of the same verb: benedic, benedictus, benedicas, benedictam, benedictione, benedicat, and benedicaris which the priest always accompanies with a blessing during the Mass. And not only during Mass, but generally in any action or ceremony the derivatives of this verb are always accompanied by a blessing or sign of the Cross.
Endnotes
1 For an orthodox response to Claude de Vert, see the recent publication: Fr. Pierre Lebrun, C.O.I., The Mass: A Literal, Historical, and Dogmatic Explanation of Its Prayers and Ceremonies, vol. 1, translated by Harry B. Oesman (San Diego: Ubi Caritas Press, 2024).
2 In many uses of the Roman Rite, the priest extended his arms in the shape of a Cross after the Consecration. It can still be seen in the Dominican rite.