The exclamation at the end of the Lord's Prayer

[Paul Fowler]

Dear All,

Please forgive what must sound very banal, but I have never been able to find a definate answer to this question-in fact no one has ever given me an answer at all!!

Why, at the end of the Lord's Prayer, is it the Priest who proclaims the final exclamation and not the Reader or Deacon?

Paul

[Father David Moser]

The reason that it is always the Priest who does the exclamation at the end of the Lord's prayer is because the Priest always says the exclamation for every prayer. Simple.

Now to expand just a little ... The exclamation is kind of the "cap" on the prayer (or perhaps we could say the "end of file" character) and the general pattern of our public prayer is that the laity offer their prayers and petitions, they are gathered by the deacon who offers them in an organized whole and he gives them to the priest who stands as the "shepherd of the flock" or the "representative of the local community" before the throne of God. The form that this takes in our communal prayer is that the people pray, the deacon offers the litanies and the priest finishes with the exclamation.

Fr David Moser

[Alex Haig]

Outside of Church people often use the Lord's Prayer (e.g. for grace, to start a Bible study etc.) - if there's a Priest present should he say the exclamation at the end? I ask this as I have been in situations when he does and when he doesn't and haven't quite worked out why.

With love in Christ

Alex

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear Alex,

When the Our Father (i.e. Lord's Prayer) is said outside the church, e.g. in a home, with a priest present, if it forms part of a larger service the priest concludes it in the usual way.

If the prayer is said solely to introduce a blessing (i.e. of food, of a table) the exclamation is not said. The normal practice here is that the people, or a single reader, says:

Our Father...
Glory... both now...
Lord, have mercy. (thrice)
Father, give the blessing.
Then the priest gives the blessing.

On a feast, this is most often preceded by the troparion of the feast. If not, it is often preceded by the troparion 'The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord...'. But in many instances one begins straight away with the Our Father.

INXC, Matthew