Ask Father: Why do we say Amen after the Consecration and when receiving communion?

The word Amen is one of a small number of Hebrew words which have been imported unchanged into the liturgy of the Church. This word is attributed to our Lord in the Gospel of Saint Matthew some twenty-eight times, as well as in the Gospel of Saint John as a double formed, Amen, Amen, I say to you, some twenty-six times. As regards the etymology, Amen is a derivative from the Hebrew verb aman "to strengthen" or "Confirm".

Scriptural use

In the Holy Scripture it appears almost invariably as an adverb, and its primary use is to indicate that the speaker adopts for his own what has already been said by another.

The familiarity of the usage of saying Amen at the end of all prayers, even before the Christian era, is evidenced by Tobit 9:12.

A second use of Amen, that which is most common in the New Testament, but not quite unknown in the Old, has no reference to the words of any other person, but is simply a form of affirmation or confirmation of the speaker's own thought, sometimes introducing it, sometimes following it, such as when Jesus says, Amen, Amen, I say to you…

Lastly the common practice of concluding any discourse or chapter of a subject with a doxology ending in Amen seems to have led to a third distinctive use of the word in which it appears as nothing more than a formula of conclusion.

Liturgical use

As addressed by the question for us this week shows two special instances of the use of Amen that seem to call for separate treatment. The first is the Amen formerly spoken by the people at the close of the great Prayer of Consecration in the liturgy. The second is that which was uttered by each of the faithful when he received the Body and Blood of Christ.

Amen after the consecration

When we consider the "great Prayer of Consecration" a few words of explanation are necessary. There can be no doubt that for the Christians of the earlier ages of the Church the precise moment of the conversion of the bread and wine upon the altar into the Body and Blood of Christ was not so clearly apprehended, as it is now by us in this day and age when the Mass is celebrated in our own language. This is because back then and until the 1960’s Mass was being celebrated in Latin, a language not popularly understood in all places. They were satisfied to believe that the change was wrought in the course of a long "prayer of thanksgiving" (know to us as the Eucharistic prayer), a prayer made up of several elements — preface, recitation of the words of institution, memento for living and dead, invocation of the Holy Spirit, etc. — which prayer they nevertheless conceived of as one "action" or consecration, to which, after a doxology, they responded by a solemn Amen, an Amen that is to the fullest extent possible sung by the people as the great response to the gift of the presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ now present on the altar.

Amen after communion

The Amen which in many liturgies is spoken by the faithful at the moment of receiving Holy Communion, that is the Amen spoken after the Minister of the Eucharist shows the hosts and says “The Body of Christ,” may also be traced back to early century usage. It was a common practice in the early Church that when anyone received Communion they responded Amen, and then kissed the hand of the bishop who had brought it to them.

The point for us to consider is that the practice of answering Amen traces back to the early centuries, in fact the first and second centuries, when nearly all of the Church fathers make a reference to supplying an illustration of this common practice. In this instance, we are affirming that we do believe it is truly the Body and Blood of Christ.

Finally, it is a little word, Amen, which indicates a strong affirmation, and translates in our present terminology as “let it be so,” or “I do believe.” This simple word expressed the faith we should have whenever we pray but certainly as we approach the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Ask Father: Can anyone go to Heaven?

Dear Father: Can non-Catholics go to heaven even if they don’t have Confession to go to? Can Catholics who left the Church and don’t go to Confession go to heaven?

Dear friend in Christ,

The short answer is yes. Nothing is impossible for God. God’s mercy is infinite.

However, we should remember that the safest and surest way to salvation is through the Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church – the only Church that Jesus founded while He was on earth. The Sacraments are the natural manifestation of what faith in Jesus looks likes in real life. The Sacraments are the normal and ordinary road to heaven.

This is why it is so urgent that each of us do whatever we can to help the people we love return to the Church. If you are concerned about the salvation of a loved one, you can and should have a loving conversation with them about it. But we should remember the words of Saint Monica who prayed for the conversion of her son, Saint Augustine, for decades. She said “it is better to talk to God about Augustine than to talk to Augustine about God.” What she means is that people’s hearts are returned to the Lord more by our prayers, penances, sacrifices, disciplines and pleas than by our trying to convince them ourselves.

Apologetics 101: Half the Battle

Avoiding sin is not the same thing as growing in virtue.

• Think of the human heart. One beat of the heart has two phases–the systolic phase and the diastolic phase.

• Systolic refers to the heart collecting blood and diastolic is when the heart sends it out into the body.

• The heart needs both of these functions to work properly, every second of every day!

• The same is true of the Christian life. There are two phases we need for us to be healthy but it seems most of us only do one of them!

• All of us know that we need to avoid sin. Every child in religious education classes knows this. But avoiding sin is only one of the two critical phases, like the beating of a heart.

• The other one is growing in virtue! We need to avoid sin and grow in virtue!

• The Church teaches that virtue is an “interior disposition, a positive habit, a passion that has been placed at the service of the good” (CCC 1803, 1833).

• You can say that virtue is excellence that has become habitual.

• Let’s use the practical example of impatience and patience. Impatience is a vice, patience is a virtue.

• Everyone knows we need to avoid impatience; but we will never become free of impatience unless we also are actively pursuing and working on patience! Do you see the difference?

• So, how do we grow in virtue?

1. we ask God for it. We must pray! We ask God to not only free us from our vices but to help us grow in the corresponding virtue.

2. we practice it! Remember, virtue is excellence that has become a habit. Developing patience (or any other virtue) takes practice and work. There is no pill. There is no shortcut. It has to be practiced over and over again until it becomes habitual.

3. we reframe every former occasion of impatience as an opportunity to grow in patience! So, when you’re in the car instead of swearing at the person who cut you off, you say “Lord, thank you for sending me this opportunity to practice patience.” It’s not easy!

4. we seek out little way of cultivating the virtue. For patience, it would look like letting other people go ahead of you, spending time in situations you would usually avoid and other such things that challenge you.

5. we reach out to the patron saint of the virtue we want to grow in and ask their intercession! The patron saint of patience is Saint Monica (see our Ask Father column this week!)

• When we avoid sin and begin trying to grow in virtue, we start growing rapidly in holiness!

• A great resource on growing in virtue is Bishop Robert Barron’s talk “Seven Deadly Sins; Seven Lively Virtues”: https://bit.ly/2XWe95o