Missa/leitourgia

[Cluny]

As you know, during the Anaphora, the Celebrant prays aloud, “Your own of Your own we offer unto You, in behalf of all and for all.”

This last phrase is the essence of what leitourgia implies in Greek.

Could it be that the Latin “missa” from “Ite missa est” is related to “missio”, something likewise done “in behalf of all and for all”?

If so, “Ite missa est” could mean, “Go; the Liturgy [mission] is accomplished.”

How does this sound to you all. (Makes more sense to me than, “Go; it’s the dismissal.”)

 

[Aramis]

dismissal is derived from missal… dis: the ending of or the destruction of…

 

[Deacon_Ed]

From a linguistic point of view the phrase simply means “Go, it is the dismissal.” But there is a deeper meaning – there is the understanding, not that the Mass is ended, but that it is time for all of us to go a be what we say we are. We are to take the Mass out into the world, to be Christ to those we meet. There was a time when the concept of having “paid our dues” was associated with this term, at least in the Roman Army – and that, too, enters into this. We have spent time with the Lord, and now we must be about doing the Lord’s work.

Deacon Ed

 

[Diak]

Interesting points, Cluny. As Archbishop +Kallistos put it, the liturgy after The Liturgy.