The first words of the Embolism of
the Lord's Prayer in the Roman Rite. Most liturgies contain a
prayer developing the idea of the last clause of the Our Father
(But deliver us from evil), and specifying various evils from
which we pray to be delivered. This prayer, which always follows
the Our Father immediately, is called its Embolism (embolismos,
insertion). In many rites (Antiochene, Alexandrine, Nestorian) it
is rather of the nature of an insertion into the Our Father,
repeating again and enlarging on its last clauses (e.g. the
Antiochene Embolism: "And lead us not into temptation, O
Lord, Lord of Hosts Who knowest our weakness, but deliver us from
the evil one, and from his works and all his might and art, for
the sake of Thy Holy Name invoked upon our lowliness"). The
Roman Embolism is said secretly by the celebrant as soon as he has
added Amen to the last clause of the "Pater noster" sung
by the choir (or said by the server). In the middle (after omnibus
sanctis) he makes the sign of the cross with the paten and
kisses it. During the last clause (Per eundem Dominum nostrum .
. .) he puts the paten under the Host, he (at high Mass the
deacon) uncovers the chalice, genuflects, breaks the Host over the
chalice, puts a small fraction into the chalice and the rest on
the paten. This rite is the Fraction common to all liturgies. The
last words (Per omnia sæcula sæculorum) are
sung (or said) aloud, forming the Ecphonesis before the Pax). Only
on Good Friday does he sing it aloud, to the tone of a ferial
Collect, and the choir answers Amen. In this case the Fraction
does not take place till the Embolism is finished. In the Milanese
and Mozarabic Rites he sings it, and the choir answers Amen. For
the Gallican Embolism (of Germanus of Paris, d. 576) see Duchesne,
"Origines du Culte chretien (Paris, 1898), 211. The present
Milanese form is very similar to that of Rome. It will be found
with its chant in any edition of the Ambrosian Missal. The
Mozarabic Embolism with its chant is in the "Missale Mistum"
(P.L. LXXXV, 559-60). In both rites the Fraction has preceded the
Lord's Prayer. The Embolisms of the Eastern rites are given in
Brightman, "Eastern Liturgies", (Oxford, 1896), namely:
Antiochene, 60, 100; Alexandrian, 136, 182; Nestorian, 296;
Armenian, 446. In all these the Embolism is said secretly, with
the last words aloud (Ecphonesis); the people answer Amen. The
Byzantine Rite has no Embolism of the Lord's Prayer, but only the
final clause: "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the
glory, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, now and for
ever and for ages of ages. R. Amen" (ibid., 392 and 410).
That it once had this prayer, like the parent Rite of Antioch,
seems certain from the fact that there is an Embolism in the
Nestorian and Armenian Liturgies, both derived at an early date
from Constantinople.
ADRIAN
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