Usually, “Lord, I am not worthy…” is the last thing the congregation kneeling in the pews says before communion. But at one Church I go to, the priest follows that with the above prayer, (“May the Body and Blood of Christ…” not quietly, but out loud, to the congregation. And we reply, “Amen.” Is that common, or a valid norm…?
There are certain prayers of the priest which are his
private prayers:
Munda cor meum before reading the Gospel,
Per evangelica dicta after reading the Gospel,
Per huius aquae during the mingling of the water with the wine,
In spiritu humiliatis after the blessing of the bread and wine,
Lava me, Domine during the
lavabo (washing of the hands), the
Haec commixitio as he places a fragment of the Host in the Chalice during the Fraction Rite, the
Domine Iesu Christe or
Perceptio Corporis before the priest elevates the Host (and Chalice)
right before the
Ecce Agnus Dei (“This is the Lamb of God…”), the
Corpus Christi custodiat and
Sanguis Christi custodiat during the priest’s own communion, and finally the
Quod ore sumpsimus after Communion is completed (and preferably during the purification of the sacred vessels).
Also added to that list, if the priest so chooses, are the
Benedictus es, Domine prayers over the bread and wine at the beginning of the Offertory. However, those can be said out loud, and the congregation responds
Benedictus Deus in saecula (“Blessed be God forever”).
In each of these cases, though, the
Missale Romanum gives the following instruction:
secreto dicit/
dicit secreto (which mean “he says in private”) and
dicens secreto/
secreto dicens (which mean “saying in private”). The English translation of the
Missale translates these phrases in two ways: “says/saying in a low voice”, “says/saying inaudibly”. This is in
clear contrast to the instruction to “say aloud” (
clara voce dicit: he says in a loud/distinct/clear voice), which is given, for example, before the
Ecce Agnus Dei.
So, to answer your question, it is not proper that the priest say those prayers out loud, with the intention of having the congregation hear him and expect they need to respond with “Amen”. This is for a few reasons:
*]There is no rubric for them to respond Amen to those prayers.
*]The rubrics say the prayers are to be said silently (in a “low” voice).
*]The nature of these prayers does not demand the “consent” of the congregation! The priest is not speaking to us, he is speaking to God.
*]There is no need to fill silence during the Mass with sound just for the sake of sound.
