E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

THE FIRST PART OF THE PRAYER. 109
This prayer is divided into three parts. The
prayer begins with the words, Unde et memores
ends with
Wherefore, O Lord, we (" thy servants and "),
"
per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum, through
the same Christ our Lord," just before the Memento for
the Dead.
EXPLANATION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE PRAYER
AFTER THE CONSECRATION.
Father Suarez (Hi. Disp. 75, sect. 5, n. 15), says that
the end of these prayers after the Consecration is to
implore of the Father to accept from our unworthy
hands the Divine Body and Blood of His Son, lest
through our sins the fruit of the Sacrifice be hindered^
lessened, or lost.
We Thy servants. Priests are in a very special
way the servants of God, and attached to His Sanctuary.
The use of the plural is thought by some writers to
refer to the time when various priests were said to
celebrate, that is, to perform one joint action with a
Bishop or the Pope celebrant at the Mass. This
custom is referred to by Pope Innocent III. in his fourth
book on the Mass. The custom seems to have passed
out of use in the thirteenth century. The only vestige
of it that now remains is to be found in the Mass at the
Ordination of a priest and the Consecration of a Bishop.
But the use of the plural in we Thy servants need not
refer to the custom at all. In the prayer Te igitur,
which begins the Canon and corresponds closely in
form to the present prayer the plural is also used as in
the Orate fmtres and various portions of the Mass.
Priest and people pray together.