The Seal of the Lord’s Prayer
It is most fitting that the crowning word “Amen” completes the Lord’s Prayer. St. Jerome in his commentary on St. Matthew calls this word “the seal of the Lord’s Prayer.” The “Amen” is also the subject of the final chapter of The Catechism of the Council of Trent, indicating its importance since it warrants an entire chapter to itself. It must also be stated that Our Lord Himself repeatedly taught us by His holy example to pray this word. As the Catholic Encyclopedia remarks, “St. Matthew attributes it to Our Lord twenty-eight times, and St. John in its doubled form twenty-six times.”
Before explaining the meaning of the Hebrew word “Amen,” which we say so often but rarely reflect upon, the Roman Catechism first sets before us the spiritual fruits that come to the soul at the conclusion of prayer. The first such fruit is truly sublime – that the God of the universe hears our lowly prayers. Likewise, sweetness, confidence, and gratitude are granted to souls as God sees fit. The Roman Catechism further adds: “Let him, therefore, who has recourse to holy prayer approach God his Father, fortified by faith and animated by hope, not doubting that he will obtain those blessings of which he stands in need.”
At the same time, The Catechism of St. Pius X importantly cautions that it is not enough to merely recite the words of the Our Father. We must truly pray them: “To obtain the graces asked in the Our Father we must recite it without haste and with attention; and we must put our heart into it.”
Amen: So Be It!
Regarding this capstone to the Lord’s Prayer, The Catechism of St. Pius X concisely teaches: “Amen means: So be it; So I do desire; Thus do I pray the Lord; Thus do I hope” all the same time, illustrating the difficulty in translating this Hebrew word into the vernacular. The Roman Catechism discusses this translation difficulty by way of example:
“By many, the word amen is differently interpreted. The Septuagint interprets it, So be it; others translate it, Verily: Aquila renders it, Faithfully. Which of these versions we adopt is a matter of little importance, provided we understand the word to have the sense already mentioned, namely, that when the priest (pronounces Amen), it signifies the concession of what has been prayed for. This interpretation is supported by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians [cf. 2 Cor. 1:20] ….”
The Unique Manner of Praying the Our Father at the Traditional Latin Mass
The Roman Catechism, in its characteristic manner, insightfully teaches one peculiarity of the meaning of the word “Amen,” as it is prayed by the priest during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This uniqueness may have been lost on us before, even after, having attended Mass for decades:
“In the Sacrifice of the Mass, when the Lord’s Prayer is said [the Church] does not assign the word amen to the server who answers: But deliver us front evil. She reserves it as appropriate to the priest himself, who, as mediator between God and man, answers Amen, thus intimating that God has heard the prayers of His people. This practice, however, is not common to all the prayers, but is peculiar to the Lord’s Prayer. To the other prayers the server answers Amen, because in every other this word only expresses assent and desire. In the Lord’s Prayer it is an answer, intimating that God has heard the petition of His suppliant.”
In The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically, and Ascetically Explained (1908), Fr. Nicholas Gihr explains this uniqueness as such:
“This last petition is here made in the name of the faithful by the acolyte or choir, after which the priest concludes the Our Father by saying, in a low voice, Amen. This Amen from the lips of the priest, who is mediator between God and man, has in this place a peculiar significance. It expresses not as at other times consent and desire, but is, so to speak, the answer that God has received and heard the petition of the people. The Our Father is recited aloud, or sung, in order that all present may join in the prayer with devout hearts and in childlike confidence, to which they are also incited by the Oremus, previously said.”
The priest has seen the Lord and spoken to Him. We ask for deliverance from evil and the priest says it is done. God has heard our prayer.
The Mystical Significance of How the Priest Prays the Our Father
The Our Father has been prayed during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass since time immemorial. Surviving written records from the 4th century indicate it was normative in the Mass, but there is no reason to doubt it has always been part of the Church’s liturgical prayer. The Apostles received this prayer from Christ precisely when they asked Him to “teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1).
We know further that around the year A.D. 600, Pope St. Gregory the Great confirmed the Pater Noster’s place in the liturgy immediately before the fracturing of the Host and Holy Communion. As the Angelus Press Hand Missal observes, “In the ancient Church it was considered the only preparation worthy of Holy Communion.”
Those familiar with the Traditional Latin Mass will be aware that every action of the priest at the altar – and his every word – is legislated by the Church and delineated in the Missal. Hence, it does not matter which ordained priest is offering the Mass, as an individual’s own personal characteristics (e.g., manner of speaking or personality) fade away through the rubrics. Even his facial expression is shielded from us since he faces east (ad orientem) as he addresses God the Father in persona Christi and on our behalf.
Despite all the rubrics (e.g., look here, do this, say this while making the Sign of the Cross, etc.), the rubrics for how the priest prays the Pater Noster are very simple. The Church prescribes for him that he is to speak these most sacred words to the Sacred Host. The priest, who offers the Holy Sacrifice as an alter Christus, speaks to Our Lord the words which He Himself taught: “Our Father, Who art in Heaven….”
We thus see how the Sacred Liturgy brings to life the words of Christ: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The priest is looking on the very Face of God when he pronounces those venerable words to the Consecrated Host and when he answers the server with the word “Amen.”
Amen As the Capstone to Our Prayers
In our own lives, we know that most prayers are ordinarily[1] concluded with this sublime word, even the prayers we say in our daily lives outside of the Sacred Liturgy. Like the Creed and the Hail Mary, the Our Father should be prayed by all the Christian faithful each and every day, as The Catechism of St. Pius X teaches, “because every day we have need of God’s help.”
May the Good Lord inflame all of our souls with His love, and may we, who have learned the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer through the wisdom of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, share this wisdom with others! In an era when the Faith is under constant assault from both within and without the Church, and when so few Catholics can explain and defend the Faith, may the great saints who preceded us in this battle pray for us to emerge victorious.
God will win. The Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph. And until that day, may we labor for His reign, for the exaltation of the true Faith, and for the conquest of as many souls for His Kingdom as possible.
For a more thorough explanation of this and other petitions, see the book “The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World.”
ENDNOTE:
[1] Commenting on the various times at which Amen is used in the Church’s traditional rituals, the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the topic illustrates some liturgical oddities. While we may be accustomed to always adding Amen to the end of our prayers, some prayers – like the form of Baptism – do not and, per the Holy See, should not include “Amen” at the end. Concerning these interesting liturgical differences, Fr. Herbert Thurston writes the rationale at https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01407b.htm