What happened to the priest invocation of the Holy Spirit during the reciting of the Creed? What was the reason for the removal?

anyone?

Ray,

Can you be more specific in your question? The priest makes no specific invocation of the Holy Spirit during the Creed. Maybe you are thinking of the priest holding the aer over the holy gifts at this time?

Admin

Admin,

When the priest prays over the Holy Mysteries after the words of consecration while the people say the Creed. The priest uses the cloth (not the Kalima but the other cloth). He waves it over the Mysteries and recites a prayer of invocation of the Holy Spirit.

In Eastern Theology I was taught (I might be wrong) that period of concencration is not necessarily known. Unlike in the Latin Church which believes right after the words of concencration is when the mystery happens.

Hence, I am concerned why this prayer was omitted.

Ray, What you write makes no sense. Can you please rephrase?

The waiving of the aer is done during the part of the creed up until the part he was crucified. There are no specific words of the priest that go with this (as he is praying the Creed). The consecration (the Words of Institution and the Epiclesis) comes later, after the Creed.

Can you be specific and give the exact sequence of events, quoting a Liturgicion (or the text found in your prayer book) so we can understand the question you are asking?

I am sorry I was wrong. I should had said before the words of consecration.



That is what I am refering too. Why was that omitted?

Aer



I have a bigger point to make, but first I would like to know why it was omitted.

So, you are asking why your priest did not hold the aer over the holy gifts during the Creed until the part where the crucifixion was mentioned? I don't know. He should have. Ask him.

Unless you state otherwise I will conclude that you were not referencing a specific prayer (i.e., specific words) of the priest that were omitted during the Creed (since there are none during the Creed other then the Creed itself and he should be praying the Creed together with the Assembly).

The aer is the veil which covers the gifts of bread and wine. The priest places it upon his shoulders during the Great Entrance (or on his head if it is a Pre-sanctified Liturgy). After the Great Entrance, it is re-placed over the gifts, which symbolizes the stone that sealed Christ's tomb or Christ's burial shroud (depending on the source, but it is distinctly connected to a covering of Christ in his burial). This is appropriate considering that the Great Entrance is symbolic of Christ's funeral procession.

During the creed, the aer is waved over the chalice (or over the bishop if it is a hierarchal liturgy). I've heard this waving explained as everything from it symbolizes the coming of the Holy Spirit or the movement of the angels to it being the earthquake when Christ rose from the dead or it keeps the flies away.

Every source I've ever seen has the priest praying the creed at the same time as the people and does not have him praying or doing anything else in that time other than waving the aer. It is rather important that the priest pray the creed, and no one has the priest divert his attention from it by praying anything else.

The epiclesis is when the priest prays for the descent of the Holy Spirit. This is done twice. Once he calls upon the Spirit to descend upon the people, and once he calls on the Spirit to descend upon the gifts. The second epiclesis is called the consectory epiclesis, and the text of that was said silently and is now said aloud (which can be seen below). Other than this prayer now being audible, there is no change in what the priest is praying or doing either during the Creed or the Epiclesis.

Unless I am missing something that wasn't done. I have been away a lot since the new Liturgy was implemented. So, I assumed that this was part of the revision.


Wondering,

I was taught that this was an invocation of the Holy Spirit. I was also taught that it originated as a practical practice to get rid of flies.

Ray,

You and John posted the two above while I was composing my previous response. It seems he has found the source of the problem: you do not recall the priest waving the aer during the creed and need to discuss with him why this was. There are some sources which say this waving is symbolic of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but not that it is the descent of the Holy Spirit, so maybe there was some miscommunication between you and the person who passed this explanation on to you (or between the person who passed it on to you and the person who had shared it with him).

In any case, it appears that everything is now as it should be and the warning can be lifted.

The priest did not wave the Aer over the Holy Gifts during the Creed? Perhaps the priest prefers to do as the Old-Ritualists do. Or perhaps the priest is arthritic.

Fr. Serge