"We believe") is said by all, and the kiss of peace is given.[1] So we come to the anaphora (of Basil).[2] The deacon cries out: "Come, stand with fear, look towards the East. Let us attend." Celebrant: "Mercy, peace and a sacrifice of praise. The Lord be with you." R.: "And with thy spirit." Celebrant: "Lift up your hearts." R.: "We have (them) to the Lord." Celebrant: "Let us give thanks to God." R.: "Right and just." Celebrant: "Right and just, etc." The people sing the Sanctus, and the celebrant takes up the idea in a prayer like the Gallican "Vere sanctus." The words of Institution soon follow, the people interspersing them with Amens. Incense is swung meanwhile, lighted tapers are held around the altar, and everyone uncovers his head. At the words of Institution the bread is broken into three parts. After them, after our Lord's command to do as he had done,[3] the people answer: "We announce thy death, O Lord, and we confess thy resurrection." Then comes the Epiklesis: "We sinners, thy unworthy servants, pray thee, Christ our God, and we adore thee by the favour of thy goodness, that thy Holy Spirit come upon us and upon these offered gifts, that he may hallow them and make them thy holy of holies."[4] R.: "Amen." Priest:" And that he should make this bread (he shall sign it thrice with the cross) the holy body (he shall bow his head and point to the body with his hand) of the same Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is given for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to him who receives it." R.: "Amen." The corresponding form (with the same rubrics) follows for the chalice.[5] Then comes the Intercession, a litany said by the deacon with a prayer by the celebrant after each clause.[6] There is a long list of saints, including many
- ↑ Ib. 158-163. The "kiss" takes the form of touching each other's hands.
- ↑ Here we part company with Brightman, who gives the Cyril anaphora.
- ↑ Quoted in an expanded form; Renaudot, i. 15.
- ↑ The rubric directs: "Meanwhile the priest shall have his hands stretched out and lifted up, praying for the descent (of the Holy Ghost)." Notice the comparatively rare feature that the Invocation-prayer is addressed to Christ.
- ↑ Renaudot, i. 15-16. This Epiklesis (of the Coptic Basil liturgy) is clearly modelled on that of the Byzantine Basil; Brightman: op. cit. 330.
- ↑ So this originally foreign anaphora does not show the typical note of the Egyptian rite, namely, the Intercession before the Consecration, as in Coptic St. Mark (Brightman, 165-175). See Fortescue: The Mass (Longmans, 1912), p. 96.
