On another post “Go in Peace, but not yet” Latin Rite Mom wrote the following comment:
Father, I believe the words Ite Missa Est literally mean “it is sent”. My understanding is that the priest is telling the faithful that the sacrifice is sent. Very much as the Jewish high priest would come out of the Holy of Holies and inform the people the sacrifice is complete. We then respond with thanking God. The English translation that the Mass is ended is not a good one and leads to the same confusion you are voicing: Is the Mass over or not? No, the sacrifice is over but the rite continues after the Sacrifice is Sent and the last few parts are to strengthen us for the week ahead; the final blessings and the sublime words of Saint John.
In fact, Latin Rite Mom is correct about the literal translation of Ite Missa Est—it is sent; In fact a more literal translation uses the feminine English for Missa which is feminine in Latin, “she is sent.”
I have never been taught that this referred to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being sent to God the Father and it is now complete. What I have been taught that we are sent “to love and serve the Lord” or glorifying the Lord by our life.
If in fact the literal translation refers to what Latin Rite Mom says it means, then it makes sense to have the blessing following it and the Last Gospel, “the Prologue of Saint John”.
What do you think?
6 comments:
Ite (Go) Missa Est (you are dismissed) has been my understanding but it usually was translated in the English version as "Go the Mass is ended." But I am not an expert in the nuances of Latin
I am no expert either. But google translate has the literal translation of Ite Missa est as she was sent away. So ite could mean go or sent.
At Divine Liturgy, the final blessing precedes the actual dismissal as well. The "work" is concluded, however, there isn't just an abrupt pull the needle off the record moment. We have some additional chanting to ease back into "earthly cares" if you will.
I Googled this as I recall it not meaning exactly what one reasonably would think it to mean.
Go, the Mass is ended
For many years, the dismissal at Mass was the Latin phrase, Ite, missa est. It was often translated: “Go, the Mass is ended.” Literally, however, it means, “Go, it is sent.” Not you are sent, but it is sent, or perhaps even He is sent.
What is the Latin translation ite missa est?
So Ite missa est should be translated "Go it is the dismissal." (See Florus the Deacon, "De expositione Missæ", P.L., CIX, 72.) On certain days which have the character of fasting or penance, this versicle is replaced by the words Benedicamus Domino.
ByzRus, Indeed that is how it is...
Of all the Liturgies that I have been to, only the modern roman missal puts the final blessing before the dismissal.
So I think it would lean towards that interpretation that is mentioned.
This is what happens when you go to seminary in the 70s and the whole faculty is in a hurry to invent a new theology and a new church.
Father McDonald, I thought this was interesting and Good Old Pope Benedict even weighed in on its meaning:
Normally translated today as “Go, the Mass is ended,” “Ite, missa est” literally means “Go, it has been sent.” From this phrase we get the word “Mass” as well as the word “missal,” which is the name for the book containing the prayers of the Mass.
As fascinating as this is, it does not answer the question of why perfectly sensible, very smart, and thoroughly-fluent-in-Latin people throughout the Church’s history insist on taking a phrase which clearly means “it is sent” and translating it as “the Mass is ended.” It boggles the mind!
That means it’s time for some historical liturgical investigation.
We find quickly that the phrase “Ite, missa est” appears to be a Roman Mass practice. Nowhere is it found in the liturgies of the Eastern Church, nor in non-Roman western rite liturgies. The phrase does appear in many of the earlier Roman liturgies (some dating to soon after the collapse of the Roman Empire). Such evidence ties the phrase with the Mass prayed by the popes at that time. As was often the case in the early centuries of the Church, if you wanted to know how to do something liturgical, you turned to Rome, saw how the pope prayed, and then imitated him. Such was the case with “Ite, missa est.”
The exact origin of this phrase puzzled even medieval liturgists. Some argued that there is a word missing, which would explain the awkward sentence structure (perhaps “Hostia” or “ecclesia,” as John O’Brien suggests in A History of the Mass and its Ceremonies in the Eastern and Western Church [New York: The Catholic Publication Society, 1881], 388). The Catholic Encyclopedia notes:
It has been thought that a word is omitted: Ite, missa est finita; or est is taken absolutely, as meaning “exists,” is now an accomplished fact. The real explanation seems to lie rather in interpreting correctly the word missa. Before it became the technical name of the holy Liturgy in the Roman Rite, it meant simply “dismissal”. The form missa for missio is like that of collecta (for collectio), ascensa (ascensio), etc. So Ite missa est should be translated “Go it is the dismissal.” (See Florus the Deacon, “De expositione Missæ”, P.L., CIX, 72.)
This has allowed for a wide range of interpretations concerning this phrase. St. Thomas Aquinas said it meant the offering of the Mass had been sent to God.
And from this the mass derives its name [missa]; because the priest sends [mittit] his prayers up to God through the angel, as the people do through the priest. Or else because Christ is the victim sent [missa] to us: accordingly the deacon on festival days “dismisses” the people at the end of the mass, by saying: “Ite, missa est,” that is, the victim has been sent [missa est] to God through the angel, so that it may be accepted by God. (Summa Theologica, III. Q. 83, a. 4, reply to Obj. 9)
In his beautiful reflection of the seven last words of Christ, which he connects to seven parts of the Mass, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen compares the “Ite, missa est” with Christ’s words, “It is finished.”
Post a Comment