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Glossary

Liturgical terms with Greek and Latin etymologies

pp. 307–320 · 225 entries

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Ablutions: ceremonial cleansings: as in Baptism; or of the eucharistic vessels after Communion.
Accumulation: the recitation of two or more offices of worship continuously.
Administration: 1) the application of a Sacrament or other rite to a recipient (The Administration of the Lord's Supper; the Ministration of Holy Baptism); 2) the giving of the sacramental elements to a communicant (the Words of Administration).
Agapé: (ἀγάπη, love; cf. Jude 12): the ‘Love-Feast’; a meal of holy fellowship in the early Church, at first associated with the Eucharist, later divided from and contrasted with it; surviving until the third century.
Agnus Dei: invocations of Christ as Lamb of God, originating in the Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem (LEW 62a. 24); introduced into the Western Litany and Liturgy by Sergius I (687–701).
Aliturgical: (< ἀ- negative + liturgical; cf. ἀλειτούργητος): without a celebration of the Holy Liturgy.
Alleluia: (Heb. Halelu-jah, Ps. 104:35; ἀλληλούια, Rev. 19:1 ff.): Praise ye the Lord; universally sung before the Gospel in the old Liturgies, and frequent in other offices; in the West omitted or supplanted in penitential seasons.
Ambo: (ἄμβων [< ἀναβαίνω, go up], originally any eminence, later a raised stage or desk): a pulpit (there were usually two), from which Epistle or Gospel was read.
Anamnêsis: (ἀνάμνησις): the liturgical commemoration of Christ's Passion and Redemption.
Anaphora: (ἀναφορά, offering up): the Eastern name for the consecratory Canon of the Eucharist, beginning with the Sursum Corda.
Ante-Communion: the preliminary part of the Communion Office, used in conjunction with Morning Prayer, without an actual celebration of the Sacrament; ending with the Creed in the British books, with the Gospel in the American.
Anthem: 1) formerly, an Antiphon; 2) in modern use, any portion of Scripture set to sacred music, for occasional use.
Antiphon: (ἀντίφωνον, responsive strain): 1) formerly, a musical Respond after each verse of a Psalm or Canticle; 2) now a verse introductory to such Psalm or Canticle, so chosen as to give a sort of ‘key-note’ to it, according to the occasion.
Aspersion: sprinkling with holy water.
‘Athanasian’ Creed: the Canticle Quicunque vult, of unknown authorship in South France or North Spain; known to the Synod of Autun in 670 as ‘The Faith of St. Athanasius’; bound up with the Psalter at the end of the seventh century; in use since the end of the eighth century at Sunday Prime; daily in the Sarum Use: now substituted for the Apostles' Creed at Morning Prayer on certain festivals in the British books.
Banns: (F. ban, G. Bann, proclamation, ∥ Gr. φάναι, L. fari, speak): the public proclamation of a proposed marriage.
Benedicite: a Canticle, Song of the Three Children 35–65, formerly sung at Sunday Lauds, now an alternative to the Te Deum at Morning Prayer.
Benediction: (L. bene + dictio, exactly translating εὐλογία): a ministerial (sacerdotal) blessing of things or persons.
Benedictory Prayer: see Commendatory Collect; Super populum.
Benedictus: the Canticle, Luke 1:68–79, formerly sung at Lauds in the Sarum Use, now after the Second Lesson at Morning Prayer.
Benedictus es, Domine: the Canticle, Song of the Three Children 29–34, since 1928 an alternative to the Te Deum at Morning Prayer.
Benedictus qui venit: the acclamation of Matt. 21:9, appended to the Sanctus in the fifth century; removed in 1552.
Betrothal: 1) the signifying of free consents to an ensuing marriage; 2) the introductory portion of the modern marriage service certifying such consents.
Bidding: an invitation to prayer, usually naming the object.
Bidding Prayer: an address to the people, moving them to prayer, and proposing objects for their intercessions. (Bidding < AS. biddan [G. bitten, beten], ask, pray; so that the ‘Bidding of the bedes’ [AS. bede = G. Bitte, prayer: the word bead being wholly derived from its use in counting prayers] originally meant the praying of prayers. Bid = pray being obsolete, the sense of asking is now dominant, so that the surviving phrases now bear the connotation of inviting to prayer, rather than engaging in prayer.)
Black-Letter Festivals: days commemorated in the Calendar in black type, but not provided with proper liturgical services; contrasted with Red-Letter Festivals.
Breviary: (breviarium < brevis, brief): a book containing the Daily Offices or canonical Hours of Prayer; so called from the abbreviation of the many part-books of the old choir offices to make a portable volume.
Canon: (κανών, rule): a fixed order of prayer; especially the sequence of consecration prayers (Canon actionis, Canon consecrationis) in the Roman rite, as distinguished from the variable beginning of the Liturgy: formerly counted as commencing with the Preface, now with the prayer Te igitur.
Canon of the Communion: (medieval Canon communionis): the definite order and structure of the prayers for the Administration of the Communion and the conclusion of the Liturgy, following the Consecration.
Canonical Rubrics: directions incorporated in the text of the services, embodying provisions of ancient Canon Law, such as those specifying those eligible to receive Holy Communion or Christian burial.
Canticle: a non-metrical song or hymn in the services of the Church.
Capitulary: a book containing or specifying the capitula of the Gospels to be used at the Liturgy.
Capitulum: (heading; diminutive of caput, head): a lesson of Scripture read at the services; originally a substantial section, the forerunner and pattern of the ‘Chapters’ into which Archbishop Stephen Langton divided the text of our Bible, but in later medieval times usually reduced to a single verse at the Hours.
Catechesis: (κατήχησις < κατ- ἤχέω, re-echo, cause to resound, ‘din into one's ears’): instruction by rote.
Catechism: (κατηχισμός): a form of instruction and examination by set questions and answers.
Catechumen: (κατηχούμενος, pres. pass. part.): one under elementary instruction in Christian doctrine.
Catechumens, Service of: (Missa catechumenorum): the preliminary part of the Liturgy, to which (alone) those not in full membership were admitted in the early Church.
Cautions: (cautelæ): the solemn warnings of the first two Exhortations prefixed to the Marriage Service, to safeguard the sacredness of the institution.
Censing: the ritual use of incense, dating from the fourth century; at first offered to God without ceremony, as a metaphor of prayer; later applied like the aspersion of holy water, as a sanctification of persons and things.
Ceremonial: the actions necessary for the performance of a rite; cf. Ritual.
Character: (χαρακτήρ, mark or stamp): the medieval concept of an indelible spiritual mark or seal imparted by Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders — Sacraments incapable of being reiterated — said to be drawn from the analogy of the regimental insignia imprinted upon the foreheads of recruits enlisted in the Roman army.
Choir Offices: the daily Hours of Prayer, as said in the choir, not at the altar.
Chrism: (χρῖσμα < χρίω, anoint): a holy oil consecrated with special solemnities; usually perfumed with aromatic balm.
Chrysom or Chrisom: (< chrism): the white robe put on after Baptism.
Church Orders: treatises describing current disciplinary and liturgical customs of various centers, circulated in many recensions during the period when both Canons and Liturgies were becoming fixed, exercising an important influence on the forms which they assumed, and now conveying valuable information as to their early stages.
Collect: (collectio, collecta): a term of Gallican origin for a brief prayer, limited to a single theme, originally designed to gather up or collect the accumulated intentions of a pause for prayer.
Commendatory Collect: a term employed in this book to distinguish the use of a final benedictory supplication for perseverance in righteous living, as a Last Collect at the Communion, in accordance with the primitive structure of the rite. See Super populum.
Commination: (comminatio, threatening): 1) a recital of the denunciations of God's wrath against sinners, in the words of Deut. 27:16–25, Lev. 18:20, Jer. 17:5, Rom. 1:31, and I Cor. 6:9–10; 2) the service for Ash Wednesday, containing these passages, in the British books.
Commixture: the uniting of the two species of the eucharistic elements by dropping a particle of the Bread into the Chalice after the Consecration in the Latin rite. The Commixture is a relic of two customs of early days in Rome: the Sancta, which was a particle of the eucharistic Bread reserved from one celebration to the next, in token of the continuity of the Church's worship; and the Fermentum, which was a portion of the consecrated loaf sent by the Bishop to the parish churches, as a symbol of unity. In both cases, the Bread (leavened, at that period) was dry and hard after a week, and was softened in the Chalice. Cf. Fortescue, The Mass, 366 ff.; Eisenhofer II. 201 f. This ceremonial is entirely without meaning now.
Common: any constituent of a service equally suitable to any festival of a given kind or class; opposed to Proper.
Common Prayer: public or corporate worship.
Communion, Holy: 1) originally, the act of partaking of the Eucharist, or the portion of the Liturgy for administering such participation to the people. The title of the English Liturgy of 1549 so employed the term. 2) The title of the service since 1552 extends the use of the term to the whole service.
Compline: (Completorium): the final daily Hour of Prayer, at the time of retiring.
Concord: a parallel version of the same passage in another book of Holy Scripture.
Confarreatio: the rite of sealing a marriage in pagan Roman use by mutual partaking of a sacred meal, including the farreum (spelt or barley cake).
Confiteor: the Roman formula for the General Confession.
Conflation: (< con-flare, blow together, fuse): the combination of two related texts into one composite reading.
Consignation: (consignatio, a sealed document): the ‘sealing’ of a Confirmation with the Sign of the Cross.
Consuetudinary: (consuetudo, custom): a book setting forth the accustomed usages of a given Church or diocese.
Course, In: the system of using Psalms or Lessons on successive occasions in the same order in which they occur in the Bible.
Credence: (credentia, trust, faith; in medieval times, a buffet or sidetable on which dishes of food were set before serving, to be tested for poison): a table or shelf on which the bread, wine, and water are arranged in readiness for their use in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Cultus Meal: (cultus, worship): a ceremonial meal with religious significance.
Daily Offices: the canonical Hours of Prayer (in Anglican use the services of Morning and Evening Prayer), provided for each day in the year. Daily recitation of the Offices is still incumbent upon the clergy of the Church of England.
Day Hours: Terce, Sext, and None.
Dead, Service of the: (servitium mortuorum): the office of Psalms, Lesson, etc., recited in connection with a Burial. Formerly a matutinal office of commemoration for deceased members and benefactors of a monastery; later adopted for funeral use.
Decalogue: (δεκάλογος, δέκα λόγοι, the ‘Ten Words’): the Ten Commandments found in Ex. 20:1–17.
Deprecations: (< deprecari, to avert by prayer): petitions for deliverance from evil, in the Litany.
Diptychs: (δίπτυχοι, folded in two): lists of the names of the Living and the Dead commemorated in the Liturgy; so called from the double-hinged tablets upon which the Names were originally inscribed.
Dirige: Matins and Lauds of the Dead; named from the beginning of the first Antiphon (Ps. 5:8b).
Disciplina arcani: the discipline of the Secret: a system of reserve toward the uninitiate regarding certain central ‘mysteries’ of the faith (the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and eucharistic Anaphora, and in the West, the liturgical Gospel as well); in force from the third to the fifth centuries.
Dismissals: (missa or expulsio catechumenorum, etc.): the sending out of the church of classes not in full communion (Catechumens, Energumens, Penitents) before the Anaphora, and of the congregation of the Faithful at the end of the Liturgy. This is first attested at the Offices, and later adopted in the Liturgy. It may have originated in the individual blessing of the congregation as they left one by one at the end of the service, as is still the Greek custom to the present day. Cf. Mass.
Divine Service: the worship of God; in the strict sense, used only of the Daily Offices.
Double Festival: a term applied to certain Holy Days of major importance, on which originally each of the Hours of Prayer was actually doubled, i.e., recited once for the day of the Church Year, and again for the feast. Nowadays, only the Antiphons are ‘doubled,’ being repeated after as well as before their Psalms and Canticles.
Doxology: (δοξολογία < δόξα, glory, + λέγω, say): an ascription of praise to God; especially the concluding formula of a prayer.
Eastward Position: since the tenth century, the position of the celebrant of the Eucharist, facing the altar.
Effeta: (ἐφφαθά, Mark 7:34): a ceremony of anointing the organs of sense with saliva at Baptism in the Roman rite.
Elevation: the ritual lifting up of the consecrated Elements.
Embolismus: (ἐμβολισμός, interpolation, < ἐμβάλλειν, throw in, interject): the expansion of the theme of the concluding Deliver us from evil interpolated between the body of the Lord's Prayer and the final doxology in Greek and Latin rites.
Energumen: (ἐνεργούμενος, pass. part. ἐνεργεῖν, work within): a person possessed by an evil spirit; a demoniac.
Espousal: (sponsalia, < spondere, make a solemn contract, ∥ σπένδειν, make libation, σπένδεσθαι, conclude a treaty): 1) the whole rite of contracting a marriage; 2) in modern use, the definitive mutual plighting of troth (sponsalia per verba de præsenti) which effectually contracts the marriage, as distinguished from the prior exchange of consents in the Betrothal (sponsalia per verba de futuro).
Eucharist: (εὐχαριστία, Thanksgiving): 1) the service for the celebration of Holy Communion, named from the Thanksgiving which was its original Prayer of Consecration; 2) as early as the Didaché and Justin Martyr, the term was applied to the consecrated Elements.
Eucharistic Prayer: a solemn prayer in the form and style of a eucharistic Thanksgiving or Preface.
Evensong: from Saxon times the designation of combined Vespers and Compline; still officially applied to Evening Prayer in the British lectionary tables.
Exhortation: an address to the people in the text of the services.
Exorcism: (ἐξορκισμός, < ἐξ + ὁρκίζειν, bind by an oath ὅρκος): an adjuration for the expulsion of evil spirits.
Exsufflation: breathing upon the subject of Baptism.
Extreme Unction: (extrema unctio, the last anointing): the anointing of the dying.
Faithful, Prayer of the: a general Intercession for all conditions in the Church; originally said immediately after the expulsion of the Catechumens in the Liturgy.
Ferial: (feriæ, holidays): originally applied to the festal days (dies feriatæ) following Easter and Pentecost; now to weekdays in general, in opposition to festivals.
Fixed Collects, Psalms, etc.: elements of an Office which are invariable in that service, unaltered by the Christian Year.
Fixed Festivals: Holy Days attached to dates of the civil Calendar.
Form: the fixed words accompanying a ceremony, and giving it a definite sacramental meaning; cf. Matter.
Fraction: (fractio panis, < frangere, to break): the ritual breaking of bread before the administration of Communion.
Gallican: 1) pertaining to the services of the Church of France; 2) common to non-Roman Western rites: in this sense cited in this book as ‘Gallican.’
Gloria tibi, Domine: the Respond, Glory be to thee, O Lord, to the announcement of the Gospel (Sarum, 1549; dropped in 1552, restored in 1637 Scottish, 1789 American, and 1928 English).
Godparents: see Sponsors.
Gradual: a solo anthem sung after the Epistle, formerly from the steps (gradūs) of the Ambo.
Great Entrance: (ἡ μεγάλη εἴσοδος): the Byzantine procession from the chapel of the Prothesis with the Elements at the offertory time; contrasted with the Little Entrance with the Book of Gospels at the beginning of the service.
Great Intercession: the general prayer of the celebrant for all conditions of men at the Eucharist; the Prayer of the Faithful.
Great Oblation: the solemn offering of the Christian sacrifice, in remembrance of Christ's Passion, for God's acceptance, and His consecrating benediction, following the recital of the Institution; in contrast to the Minor Oblation or presentation of the Elements at the Offertory.
High Mass: (Missa solemnis): the Liturgy performed with full ceremony, with Deacon, Subdeacon, and choir.
Holy Days: festivals, including Sundays, for which proper services are provided and general observance expected.
Homilies: (ὁμιλία, assembly > address to an audience, < ὁμιλός, gathering, < ὁμός, together, + ἴλη, crowd): prepared sermons; especially the official expositions of Christian faith and practice set forth by Archbishop Cranmer in 1547, ordered to be read in lieu of sermons during the transition period of the English Reformation.
Hours of Prayer: the canonical Daily Offices of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.
Humble Access: the prayer beginning We do not presume to come to this thy Table, preparatory to receiving Holy Communion. This title in common use is derived from the rubric before this prayer in the Scottish Communion Office, since 1637.
Imposition: a laying on, as of hands, or of the Bible.
Imprecatory Psalms: (imprecare, to pray against): Psalms which invoke evil against one's enemies; notably Psalms 7, 9, 10, 14, 35, 40, 58, 59, 60, 69, 70, 83, 109, 137, which the American Book does not use on festivals or in the Table of Psalms for the Sundays of the Church Year.
Inclination, Prayer of: a benedictory prayer before the Communion or the Dismissal in the Greek rites, heard by the congregation with bowed heads.
Institution: the account of the establishing of the rite of the Holy Eucharist by our Lord, in all liturgies, conflating the narratives of Matt. 26:26–28, Mark 14:22–24, Luke 22:19–20, and I Cor. 11:23–25; commonly with other scriptural additions, especially Matt. 14:19 and I Cor. 11:26; and often with purely rhetorical interpolations.
Intention: a special object of prayer.
Intinction: (< in- + tingere, moisten, ∥ Gr. τέγγειν, Ger. tunken): the method of administering both elements of the Communion together, the Bread moistened in the Wine.
Introit: (introitus, entrance, < intro-, within, + ire, to go): an anthem sung during the entrance of the officiating clergy at the Eucharist.
Invention: (< in-venire, to come upon): the discovery of the body of a Saint, the Holy Cross, etc.
Investiture: the clothing of a candidate for ordination with the distinctive garb of his new office.
Invitatory: an Antiphon prefixed to the Venite.
Invocation: (in-vocare, to call upon): 1) any prayer calling upon God, Christ, or the Saints, by name; 2) especially the prayer calling upon God to accept and consecrate the Eucharist.
Jus liturgicum: (liturgical right): the Bishop's right to control the order of services: absolute in the earliest ages, but progressively confined by the fixing of text and rubric, and by constitutional limitations.
Justinian Reservation: the method of communicating the sick or absent described by Justin Martyr, i.e., by taking the Sacrament directly to them from a celebration in the church.
Kiddûsh: (Heb. = sanctification): a Hebrew cultus-meal.
Kyrie Eleison: (Κύριε ἐλέησον): Lord, have mercy; the principal respond of the Syrian litanies; adopted in triple or nine-fold form in the West. See Lesser Litany.
Laud(s): (laudes, praises, with especial reference to the Fixed Psalms 148–150 concluding the office): the second of the medieval Hours of Prayer, now usually recited continuously between Matins and Prime.
Laus tibi, Christe: ‘Praise be to thee, O Christ’: a response by the people after the reading of the Gospel, adopted in Am. 1928 from Sc. 1929, and apparently derived from modern Roman use, as it was not in Sarum.
Lection or Lesson: (lectio, reading, < legere, read): a passage of Scripture to be read at the services.
Lectionary: 1) a table of Lessons to be read at the Offices throughout the year; 2) a like table of Epistles (whose title in the Roman rite is Lectio) for the Liturgy.
Lesser Canon: (canon minor): a term for the highly developed group of Roman Offertory Prayers in later medieval times, as comprising elements of oblation, invocation, and intercession, parallel, and largely equivalent, to those in the Canon actionis.
Lesser Litany: the supplication “Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord, have mercy upon us,” with which the essential structure of the Litany concludes: found in the Communion as the vestige of a former Litany; and often used to introduce the Lord's Prayer in other services.
Litany-Collect: the concluding prayer summing up and resolving the ‘periodic’ structure of a Litany.
Little Hours: the brief offices of Terce, Sext, and None. Also called the Day Hours.
Liturgy: (λειτουργία, public service, < λέιτος, λεῖτος [< λαός, λαώς, people, ∥ Ger. Leute], + ἔργον, work): 1) first applied to the service of the Eucharist or Holy Communion; 2) later, any appointed ritual.
Low Mass: the Latin liturgy performed by the celebrant alone, without choir or assistant ministers.
Manual: (manuale, hand-book): the Sarum name for the collection of parochial offices known in the present Roman rite as the Rituale.
Manual Acts: the manipulation of the Elements directed by rubric during the recital of the Institution.
Mass: (missa = dismissio): the Roman name for the eucharistic Liturgy, adopted by synecdoche from the phrases missa catechumenorum, missa fidelium — originally the dismissal of catechumens and faithful. The term survived in 1549, and was eliminated in 1552.
Matins: (matutinæ, morning prayers): 1) at first, the title of the service of Lauds; 2) later, the Vigil office of Nocturns, transferred from midnight to precede Lauds as the first of the canonical Hours of the day; 3) in popular use before the Reformation, the accumulated services of Matins, Lauds, and Prime, said together at daybreak; 4) in the form Mattins, the official title of the office of Morning Prayer in 1549, surviving in the lectionary tables in later British books.
Matter: the material substance or ceremony employed in a Sacrament. See Form.
Memorial: (memoria, remembrance): originally, an added Collect commemorating the Departed; now any subsidiary Collect, whether prescribed or ad libitum, appended to the Collect of the day on all but the greatest festivals.
Metabolism: (μεταβολή, change — the customary Eastern rendering of transubstantiatio): implying a transformation of the Elements at the consecration of the Eucharist; cf. μεταβαλών in the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, LEW 330b. 5 and 9.
Mimetic: (< μιμεῖσθαι, to imitate): imitative; applied to the tendency to introduce dramatic gestures to act out the Words of Institution as they are uttered, regardless of their organic meaning in the rite.
Minister: (minister, servant; originally a double comparative, < root of minor, less; cf. Gr. superl. ending -ιστος): 1) primarily, a servant of the people, who administers to them the Word and Sacraments; 2) frequently strongly colored by its fundamental etymology, an assistant to the principal officiant; 3) in general modern Protestant usage, absolutely, a servant of God, i.e., an official rather than an officiant. The rubrics of the Latin books, and of the First Prayer Book of 1549, confined the word to sense 2), and applied it only to assistant ministers fulfilling the office of Deacons in the conduct of the services. Subsequent Anglican books revert to sense 1), and apply it to any officiant, even a Lay Reader.
Minor Oblation: the preparation and presentation of the Elements upon the altar at the Offertory, before the Canon or Thanksgiving.
Missal: a book containing all parts of the text of the Mass or eucharistic Liturgy for every occasion of the year.
Mixed Sacramentaries: books combining the pure local Roman tradition of the papal court with Gallican or other non-Roman elements.
Mozarabic: (Moorish musta'rib, ‘Arabized,’ i.e., attributed to the Moorish regions of medieval Spain): the native liturgy of Spain; fundamentally identical with the Gallican.
Nocturn: a group of Psalms sung at Matins; the name preserving a reminiscence of the original use of this Office as a midnight Vigil service. Ordinary days have a single Nocturn; festivals, three.
None(s): the sixth of the canonical Hours of Prayer: originally said at the ninth hour of the day (3 p.m.), subsequently usually anticipated: > English noon.
Notices: the publication of forthcoming days to be observed, services to be held, banns of marriage, and other announcements, directed by rubric after the Creed at the Communion Office, and customary before sermons at other services.
Numinous: (numen = divinity, Godhead): filled with a mystic recognition of divine presence and response to man's acts of religion.
Oblation: (< oblatus, p.p. of offerre): the act of offering the eucharistic Elements to God.
Oblations: formerly, in the English books, offerings of money for other than charitable purposes, as indicated by the form of the omissible clause “[alms and] oblations” in the Prayer for the Church. But an old interpretation of oblations as = oblata = the Elements offered, has been adopted in the American Book of 1928 by printing “[alms and] oblations.”
Obsecrations: (< obsecrare, to ask on religious grounds, < ob + sacer, sacred): the clauses of the Litany beginning with the word by (L. per), imploring mercy by adjuring Christ's redemptive acts.
Occasional: pertaining to particular needs and junctures of life; applies to Collects and services.
Octave: (octava dies, eighth day): the week following a festival; especially its concluding day, falling on the same day of the week as the original feast.
Offertory: 1) originally the Offertorium or anthem sung at the offering of the Elements; 2) since 1662, the action of Oblation.
Office: (officium, duty, service): 1) any religious service; 2) especially the Daily Hours.
Order: (ordo): a structural outline of a service, as distinguished from a text prescribed in all its parts; usually involving a greater or less degree of flexibility in the choice of its component elements.
Ordinal: 1) (< ordines, orders, rules): Sarum and Roman, a book containing directions for the conduct of services; 2) (< ordines, [Holy] Orders): Anglican, the book of offices for the ordination of the clergy.
Ornaments Rubric: a general rubric before the Order of Morning Prayer in the present English book (E. R. I. 127b) regulating the ‘Ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof at all times of their Ministration’ by reference to the authoritative use in the first year of Edward VI. (Cf. E. R. II. 926.) A chief battlefield in the controversies over the vesture of officiating clergy.
Paternoster: (Pater noster, Our Father): the Lord's Prayer.
Patronal: pertaining to the Saint to whom a particular church is dedicated.
Pax: the ritual Kiss of Peace at the Eucharist.
Penitential Psalms: Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.
Pentecost: (πεντηκοστὴ ἡμέρα, Fiftieth day): the seventh Sunday after Easter; Eng., Whitsunday. In the early Church, also the whole period between Easter and Whitsunday.
Petitions: (< petere, ask, seek): the intercessory supplications of the Litany, each beginning That it may please thee.
Placebo: Vespers of the Dead; named from the beginning of the first Antiphon (Ps. 116:9, after the Vulgate version 114:9).
Pontifical: (< pontifex, a word of lost derivation; possibly < Umbrian puntis = propitiatory offering? + facere, make; applied to a high-priestly order of pagan Rome, subsequently as a title of Christian bishops): a book containing the special offices of which the Bishop is minister.
Porrectio instrumentorum: (the proffering of the instruments): the symbolic conferring of the implements of an office; first employed in Minor Orders, afterward invading Holy Orders.
Postcommunion Collect: a prayer for continuing grace by virtue of the Sacrament just received; variable with the day in the Latin order, invariable in the Greek and Anglican books, which afford no other examples except the Postcommunion Thanksgiving.
Postcommunion Veil: the ‘fair linen cloth’ with which, since 1637/1662, the Anglican books have directed that the consecrated Elements should be covered after the Communion of the people.
Post-Sanctus: the passage in the Liturgy following the Sanctus, leading up to the recital of the Institution. The term is derived from the ‘Gallican’ rite, where it is a regular feature.
Preces: (prayers): petitionary responsive versicles.
Preface: (præfatio, < præ, before, + fari, speak): a solemn ascription of thanksgiving to God, originally an integral part of the Consecration Prayer, now terminated by the Sanctus. In the West, it is variable with the day, and counted as outside and prefatory to the Canon in the Roman rite. The term is Roman; Gallican: Contestatio (“testimony,” or ascription of praise), Illatio (a “bringing in,” = Præfatio? or = ἀναφορά?); Eastern, εὐχαριστία (“Thanksgiving”).
‘Preliminary’ Invocation: a feature originating in the Egyptian rites, frequent in the Gallican, and characteristic of the Roman and English liturgies, containing an Invocation of the consecrating power of God upon the Eucharist in the course of the Post-Sanctus, before the recital of the Institution.
Prime: the third of the canonical Hours of Prayer, said at the First Hour or 6 a.m. Originated by St. Basil as an office at dawn (ἑωθινή); in Western monastic use at sunrise.
Primers: (Fr. premier, primary): private collections of elementary religious instructions and devotions, in vogue before the Reformation.
Pro-Anaphora: the introductory portion of the Liturgy, before the Sursum Corda.
Prologue: (πρόλογος, < πρό, before, + λέγειν, say): a brief introductory phrase before the Lord's Prayer in the Liturgy; a vestige of the ancient Prayer of the Fraction, into which the Lord's Prayer was first interpolated.
Prone: (pronus, pronaus [< præconium? πρόναος?], the chancel grill, or place where notices are read): the vernacular instructions and devotions used before the Sermon at High Mass in Northern Europe.
Proper: (proprium): appropriate to special festivals, seasons, or occasions; opposed to Common.
Prothesis: (πρόθεσις, a setting forth): an office for the preparation of the eucharistic Elements before the beginning of the Liturgy.
Quicunque vult: see ‘Athanasian’ Creed.
Receptionism: a belief that communion with Christ is really attained through the receiving of the Sacrament, but that His presence does not inhere objectively in the consecrated Elements.
Reddition: (redditio, giving back): the recitation of instruction previously imparted by rote.
Red-Letter Festivals: days commemorated in the Calendar in red type, and provided with proper liturgical services; opposed to Black-Letter Festivals.
Requiem: a mass celebrated for the repose of the soul of a departed person; named from the first word of its Introit, Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord.
Reservation: the keeping over of the Elements consecrated at a celebration of the Liturgy, for the subsequent administering of Holy Communion to those not present at the service.
Respond: a response by choir or congregation to the officiant; especially in the Latin rite, a short Anthem after a Lection, or section thereof.
Rite: (ritus, accustomed order, ∥ Sanskrit rīti, a stream, flow, custom, < ri, flow, Gr. ḥέω): 1) the prescribed order for the performance of a public service (e.g., the ‘rite of celebrating the Holy Communion’): a sense chiefly concerned with rubrics and ceremonies; 2) such service as actually performed (e.g., the ‘Rite of Baptism’): here comprising the order of the text as well as of the action, and approximating the meaning of Liturgy or Ritual; 3) the standards of a given Church for the conduct of its services (e.g., the ‘Roman Rite’).
Ritual: pertaining to the performance of a rite according to either definitions 1) or 2) above; especially however the latter, including both text and ceremonies, and in contrast to Ceremonial alone.
Rituale: see Manual.
Rogation Days: the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension. Originally Litany-Days for deliverance from calamity, they have been assimilated to prayers for the forthcoming harvest.
Rogations: (rogationes, < rogare, ask, supplicate): the old Roman term for Litanies.
Rubrics: (rubrica, red coloring-matter, < ruber, red): originally the chapter-headings of the books of the civil law, because written in red; then a law of any kind; then the ceremonial laws of the Church. The term antedated, and induced, the writing in of ceremonial directions into the service-books in red letters.
Sacerdotal: (sacerdos, priest, < sacer, sacred, + dare, to give): pertaining to the orders of Priesthood, as dispensers of divine gifts and graces.
Sacramentary: (sacramentarium, book of Sacraments): a book containing the celebrant's part at the Eucharist and other Sacraments and rites.
Salutation: the greeting, “The Lord be with you,” before prayers.
Sanctorale: the Calendar of Saints' Days and other fixed festivals; opposed to Temporale.
Sanctus: (sometimes called Tersanctus): the angelic song of Isa. 6:3, interpolated into the eucharistic Consecration Prayer about the beginning of the third century.
Sarum: the Use of Salisbury.
Scrutinies: an examination of candidates for Baptism.
Secreta: a Collect, variable with the day, recited inaudibly (secreto) at the Offertory in the Roman rite; also called Super oblata.
Secular: 1) non-monastic; 2) non-ecclesiastical or civil.
Sext: the fifth of the canonical Hours of Prayer, originally recited at the sixth hour (12 noon).
Sponsors: (< spondere, make a solemn engagement; cf. Espousals): 1) originally, sureties for the character of an adult candidate for Baptism — a use surviving in the Roman requirement of a Sponsor at Confirmation; 2) since the seventh century, the Godparents who take the baptismal vows on behalf of an infant, and assume responsibility for his religious education. In the Anglican form of Adult Baptism, the Sponsors are called Witnesses, and have no active part in the rite.
Station Days: in the early Church, the fasting-days of Wednesdays and Fridays, when the Christian went ‘on guard duty (in statione)’ against his spiritual enemies.
Stations: the churches of Rome where official services of the papal court were held on stated occasions.
Subdeacon: (subdiaconus, ἵποδιάκονος; in the Apostolic Constitutions and the Canons of Laodicea, ἵπηρέτης: cf. Luke 4:20): an assistant to the Deacon. Originally, and to this day in the East, the Subdiaconate was the highest of the Minor Orders; in the West, since the twelfth century, it has been accounted the lowest of Holy Orders, though the Latin rite of ordination is still that for a minor, not a major, Order.
Suffrages: (suffragia, < suffragari, support (as with a vote), assist, be favorable): 1) individual petitions in a prayer or Litany; 2) short petitions used as versicles and responses (Preces).
Super oblata: (‘over the oblations’): see Secreta.
Super populum: (‘over the people’): a final benedictory or commendatory prayer ‘over the congregation’ in the Western rites; a fourth variable Collect before the Dismissal of the Faithful, formerly common to all masses, now confined to the weekdays of Lent: corresponding to the fixed Prayer of Inclination in the Eastern rites. See Commendatory Collect.
Sursum Corda: (Ἔνω τάς καρδίας): the dialogue beginning ‘Lift up your hearts,’ which ushers in the liturgical Thanksgiving in all historic liturgies.
Table Prayers: 1) grace over meat; 2) concluding Collects recited at the Holy Table at the end of the Ante-Communion, or after Sermons.
Temporale: (< tempus, time, season): the Calendar of the Seasons of the Church Year, including the Movable Feasts; opposed to Sanctorale.
Terce: the fourth of the canonical Hours of Prayer, originally recited at the third hour (9 a.m.).
Thanksgiving: 1) a prayer ascribing grateful praise to God; especially 2) the unbroken Prayer of Consecration of the primitive Church (see Eucharist); and 3) the first portion of this prayer, now cut off by the Sanctus, so called in Eastern rites, corresponding to the Western Preface.
Translation: (< translatus, p.p. transferre): the removal of the bones of a Saint to their final resting-place in a church.
Trisagion: (Τρισάγιον): a canticle thrice repeating Ἀγιος ὁ Θεός (LEW 35.25) in the Byzantine and some other Eastern rites; dating from the patriarchate of Proclus (434–46).
Unction: ritual anointing with holy oil or chrism.
Urbi et orbi: a favorite papal phrase, For the City and the World, i.e., universally imposed and required throughout the Roman obedience.
Use: 1) a prevailing custom; 2) a regional rite.
Vacant Sundays: the Sundays marked Dominica vacat in the early Sacramentaries and Lectionaries. Strictly speaking the term is a misnomer, as the Sundays never were aliturgical. During the days when all-night Vigils were kept on the eves of Easter and the Ember Seasons, they had a celebration in the early hours of the Sunday. When the Vigils were anticipated on Saturday mornings, new provisions were made for the Sunday services.
Variables: movable feasts.
Versicles: (versiculi, little verses): short verses of the Psalms, said responsively according to the antiphonal structure of Hebrew poetry.
Vigils: (vigilia, < adj. vigil, wakeful, < vigere, to be vigorous, ∥ Eng. wake): watch-night services, formerly solemnized on the eves of certain great festivals, culminating in celebrations of the Eucharist in the early hours of the new day. Of these, the Christmas midnight celebration is the only modern survivor, the liturgical functions of the others (Easter, Whitsunday, and the Ember seasons) having been transferred to the morning before. Cf. Vacant Sundays. The British books since 1662 have retained a list of Vigils and Eves of certain festivals as fasting-days.
Votive: (votum, desire): a term applied to prayers and services for special objects, used at the discretion of the officiant, instead of by the course of the Calendar.
Warning: a giving of notice in advance.

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