And With Your Spirit.

Everything we say and do during Mass is meaningful. Today I’m musing on the response we give to the priest after he says, “the Lord be with you.”

When we respond “and with your spirit” we are addressing the spirit of the priest, who is set apart from us who participate in the common priesthood but not the ministerial priesthood. 

We don’t say this response to each other; it is only toward an ordained priest who has been set apart to act in the place of Christ. The priest says to us “the Lord be with you” as a prayer that God may be active in the baptized and who live as “other Christs” for the good of the world.

When we address the spirit of a priest, we address his soul and the core of his being, which bears the mark of his ordination. God acts through the priest, through his ordination, to consecrate bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. 

It is only through the priest that we have Holy Communion. Thus, the response “and with your spirit” awakens us and reminds us that something extraordinary is going to take place on the altar.

When we refer to the spirit, God points us to heaven, reminding us that the consecration of the bread and wine to Christ’s Body and Blood is transcendental. 

The response gives confidence to the divine assistance that God gives to the priest. It also recognizes the gifts and graces the priest has been given in ordination. It affirms his priesthood.

Why the change from “and also with you”? If you look at the Latin et cum spiritu tuo, which has been used since the beginning of the Church, the translation “and with your spirit” is a more accurate translation. This translation, then, helps us to remain faithful to our roots. Also, I think the change in response is helpful because it brings our attention to the supernatural.

“He said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’” (John 21:17)