APOLOGIES, LITURGICAL

A liturgical apology is an acknowledgment of personal unworthiness, generally on the part of the celebrant, to take part in the celebration of the Mass. An apology evinces therefore, at least implicitly, a consciousness of personal sin; and it is often conjoined to a prayer begging God's merciful forgiveness.

The apology was not much employed in the ancient Christian liturgy. However, for various reasons, apologies began to appear with greater frequency within the gallican rites in the 6th and 7th centuries (cf. the Mone Masses, Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, 138:863–882, passim ); and they reached the peak of their development between the 9th and 11th centuries, finding their way into numerous Mass formulas. The Missa Illyrica (c. 1030), for example, contains apologies after vesting, before entering the house of God, after kissing the altar, during the Gloria and the chants between the readings, during the Offertory singing and the preparation of the offerings, after the Orate fratres, during the Sanctus, and during the Communion of the faithful (E. Martène, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus 1.4.4:490–518). In the Orient, apologies that serve as prayers of preparation for the priest are found in the 6th century.

Some authors maintain that apologies were adopted in the Celtic-Gallican liturgical tradition in imitation of Eastern practices (L. Eisenhofer and J. Lechner, The Liturgy of the Roman Rite, tr. A. J. and E. F. Peeler from the 6th German ed., ed. H. E. Winstone, 83). Others attribute the apologies in the East and West to a common cause, namely, the fact that the concept of the mediator-ship of Christ had receded into the background as a result of the Arian controversy. In opposition to arianism, the Catholic camp stressed the divinity of Christ rather than his humanity and mediatorship. Such a tendency impressed upon sinful man the awesome majesty of the Almighty, without reminding him of the Mediator between God and man. Thus the celebrant was led to insert into the liturgy admissions of his own unworthiness to celebrate the divine mysteries. Moreover, until the 11th century, sacramental Penance was an infrequent matter, and greater emphasis was placed upon extrasacramental confession of sins as a means of forgiveness; hence the celebrant lessened his unworthiness by frequent apologies in the course of the liturgical service.

In the medieval Roman Rite of the Mass, the Confiteor and the two prayers that follow it, the Aufer a nobis and the Oramus, were apologies that served to prepare the celebrant for the celebration of Mass. These began originally as silent prayers recited by the celebrant as he approached the altar. Traditionally, the Munda cor meum was an apology that prepared the minister for the reading or chanting of the Gospel, and the Per evangelica dicta was a plea for forgiveness through the efficacy of the Gospel. Under Innocent III (d. 1216), the Offertory rite in Rome was accomplished in silence on the part of the celebrant (De sacro altari mysterio 29; Patrologia Latina 217:831), but in 1570 Pope Pius V inserted apologies into the Offertory Rite of the Mass. Historically, the two apologies Domine Jesu Christe and Perceptio Corporis tui prepared the celebrant for the reception of Communion. The Placeat which preceded the blessing was found in the Sacramentary of Amiens in the 9th century [V. Leroquais, "Ordo Missae du sacramentaire d'Amiens," Ephemerides liturgicae 41 (1927) 444].

Bibliography: j. a. jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, tr. f. brunner, 2 v. (New York 1951–55) 1:78–80; Die Stellung Christi im Liturgischen Gebet (Liturgiegeschichtliche Forschungen 19; Münster 1925) 223–225.

[e. j. gratsch/eds.]