E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

I 44
THE END OF MASS.
This prayer naturally leads to the blessing that
follows, for every blessing comes from the Sacrifice of
the Mass, and the priest is in every case the channel.
After the prayer Placeat the priest kisses the altar
and pronounces the blessing : Benedicat vos omnipotens
Deus, Pater, et Filius, % et Spiritus Sanctus.
This custom of the priest s blessing at Mass is not
very ancient. There is no proof up to the eleventh
at the end of Mass. From the tenth
century of a blessing
century many Bishops in various places began to give
the blessing at the end of Mass instead of before the
Communion. By degrees priests also began to bless
at the end of Mass. At one time priests gave the
blessing with the triple sign of the Cross, as Bishops
do now. Pius V. restricted priests to a blessing with
one sign of the Cross, except at High Mass, when he
allowed them the triple sign. At the revision of the
Roman Missal the rule was at length firmly estab
lished that Bishops at the end of Mass bless with
a triple sign of the Cross and priests with a single.
Clement VIII. made the rule absolute which forbids
a priest to bless with the triple sign of the Cross. 1
The Requiem Mass without a blessing at the end
reminds us of the centuries when no blessing was given
by priest or Bishop.
The custom of reading the beginning of St. John s
Gospel
at the end of Mass dates from the thirteenth
century, and that only in certain places. Pius V., in
revising the Missal, imposed on all priests the obliga
tion of saying St. John s Gospel at the end of Mass
except on certain days when the rubrics prescribe
another Gospel.
1 An allusion to the withdrawal of the permission for the triple
of the Cross is seen in the Rubric of the Roman Missal, "et
sign
versus ad populum,senifl tantum benedicem etiam in Missis Solemnibus."