Is this an acceptable final blessing?

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Is it acceptable for the priest to say this as a final blessing? I have heard “The Mass is ended. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and others.” I have only heard one priest say this, and if it is not acceptable, I would like to mention something to him. If anyone has the rubrics, I would appreciate it.
 
Our deacon says this as well. I’ve often wondered about it myself.

Here’s what the GIRM says about the individual parts of the Mass:
D. THE CONCLUDING RITES
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  1. The concluding rites consist of
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  1. *]Brief announcements, if they are necessary;
    *]The priest’s greeting and blessing, which on certain days and occasions is enriched and expressed in the prayer over the People or another more solemn formula;
    *]The dismissal of the people by the deacon or the priest, so that each may go out to do good works, praising and blessing God;
    *]The kissing of the altar by the priest and the deacon, followed by a profound bow to the altar by the priest, the deacon, and the other ministers.
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Seems redundant to me for the priest to say “serve the Lord and others”. Serving the Lord implies serving others.
 
I did a google search for the words that our deacon says and I came up with this .pdf document that gives the order of Mass. It says (the bolding is mine):
*Blessing & Dismissal: *
Priest: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
Priest: May almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Priest: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. **(**or similar words)
All: Thanks be to God!
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Here is the link to that document
 
Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about changing the liturgy :
1124 The Church’s faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it. When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received from the apostles - whence the ancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi (or: legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi, according to Prosper of Aquitaine [5th cent.]). The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition.
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1125 For this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy.
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Cathryn said:
Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about changing the liturgy :
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Although, from the document that AngelRose81 provided, it doesn’t give a set formula for the priest to use for the final blessing.
 
I’m just asked the question on the EWTN forums so if I get an answer I’ll let you know!

I’m also searching the previously asked questions to see.
 
Yes. This is a commissioning blessing. We are now sent to do the Lord’s work. The Priests are free to customize this blessing to the occassion. My Pastor often will incorporate (if appropriate) a phrase from the Gospel into this blessing.

The pertinent words are in the GIRM “or similar words”. In the case of the OP, it appears the Priest wants to make it clear that we are to serve others as Christians and it isn’t always about being privately prayerful or pious. Catholics are an action people for Christ. He just wants to remind us of it.
 
Orionthehunter said:
The pertinent words are in the GIRM “or similar words”.
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Could you please say in the GIRM does this appear?

I always thought it was unrubrical! I was sure the “or similar words” wasn’t in the missal.

I’ve seen it frequently in my parish- it is actually one of the few “abuses” there. Most commonly it’s a conflation of the two closing forms “The Mass is ended, go in peace” and “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. as "The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord " Just the week before, one ended it with “The Holy Sacrifice has been offered let us go in peace.” Well it was very pious, but it was unrubricial, in my view! 😛
 
What if the priest forgets the final blessing entirely? Valid but illicit or what? 🤷

We have an elderly priest that helps with Sunday masses. He does an amazing job but changes throw him sometimes. This week, there was an announcement by a student about the school. When she was done, he praised her and said he would have fainted when he was her age if he had to say all of that in front of all of these people. Everyone waited and finally he just motioned at the cantor and the altar servers saying “Come on” indicating they were to get ready for the final procession and they did. The cantor announced the closing hymn, the altar servers and lector lined up, everyone started singing and they processed out.

I know someone (preferably one of the several people close to the priest) should have said something. No one did. I’m trying to figure out a tactful way to mention to the pastor that the cantors, etc. should be instructed to discreetly mention such omissions to any priest should they occur.
 
Orionthehunter said:
… The Priests are free to customize this blessing to the occassion. My Pastor often will incorporate (if appropriate) a phrase from the Gospel into this blessing.

The pertinent words are in the GIRM “or similar words”. ,
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The words “similar words” do not appear in the GIRM. I have the USA GIRM as a PDF, I searched they are not there.

The rubrics in the Roman Missal do not have anything about similar words for the blessing.

There is a wide range of choices available. But the words to be used are in the book, the approved translations.

As the 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum has: “[59.] The reprobated practice by which Priests, Deacons or the faithful here and there alter or vary at will the texts of the Sacred Liturgy that they are charged to pronounce, must cease. For in doing thus, they render the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy unstable, and not infrequently distort the authentic meaning of the Liturgy.”

On a practical level, how do people know when to reply “Thanks be to God” if the priest can add extra words after the normal ones. As it has in the Roman Missal:
“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
The people answer: Thanks be to God.”
(Roman Missal, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1985, page 567).
 
AJV said:
Could you please say in the GIRM does this appear?

I always thought it was unrubrical! I was sure the “or similar words” wasn’t in the missal.

I’ve seen it frequently in my parish- it is actually one of the few “abuses” there. Most commonly it’s a conflation of the two closing forms “The Mass is ended, go in peace” and “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. as "The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord " Just the week before, one ended it with “The Holy Sacrifice has been offered let us go in peace.” Well it was very pious, but it was unrubricial, in my view! 😛
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I don’t think that an effort by the Priest to customize the blessing to include reference to the Gospel/Homily is an abuse. Personally, I do think that in some cases the effort can be so contrived to be awkward. I especially see this by very enthusiastic young Priests who don’t understand so well that sometimes simple can be best. This being said, my Pastor really has a great knack to tie the Gospel message into his concluding blessing in a way that we understand our mission for the next week.

From the Girm:
D. THE CONCLUDING RITES
  1. The concluding rites consist of
Brief announcements, if they are necessary;

The priest’s greeting and blessing, which on certain days and occasions is enriched and expressed in the prayer over the People or another more solemn formula;

The dismissal of the people by the deacon or the priest, so that each may go out to do good works, praising and blessing God;

The kissing of the altar by the priest and the deacon, followed by a profound bow to the altar by the priest, the deacon, and the other ministers.
 
It’s an abuse, but it’s not something so grave to make trouble over. Any complaints will probably go unheeded. It would probably be best to let it slide.
 
porthos11 said:
It’s an abuse, but it’s not something so grave to make trouble over. Any complaints will probably go unheeded. It would probably be best to let it slide.
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This weekend my Priest said something like the following: Today Jesus told us of only one leper (Gospel reading) had the grateful heart to come and thank Him for a healing that only Christ can give. Go in peace with a grateful heart for what you have recieved today in Sacrament and Word to love and serve the Lord.

Is this in your mind an abuse in context of what is in the GIRM and in the missal?

GIRM: The dismissal of the people by the deacon or the priest, so that each may go out to do good works, praising and blessing God

Missal: Priest: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. (or similar words)
 
Last week we had a visiting priest from the VATICAN and his final blessing to us was …

“May you be in heaven for half an hour before the devil knows that you’re dead”
 
ARGH. This is why I’ve ordered a Sacramentary for my own personal reference… hasn’t gotten here yet, though. I’m going to my parish after my lunch break to check the Sacramentary.

The unofficial document that was linked to is not exhaustive nor is it authoritative. For example, it renamed Penitential Option C to B, and left out the prescribed Option B. It misprinted the Nicene Creed; the approved English translation is “for us men and for our salvation”. No, it’s not a slight against the ladies; it’s a reminder of a time when you can say “men” and people would know you meant “all people”. (That’s why Latin is a better choice for the liturgy, because it’s a dead language: its words have meanings that don’t change, unlike English, where “gay” means “homosexual” now, and “men” now means “male people” to most folks.)

The document there is a guide for you, not the rubrics for the priest.
 
These are the three options found in the Sacramentary:
  1. “Go in the peace of Christ.”
  2. “The Mass is ended, go in peace.”
  3. “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
I’ve often heard a conglomeration of #2 and #3… “The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord [and each other].”
 
After reading all of your posts, I am still confused as to whether or not “or similar words” is part of the rubrics.
 
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