Hey Deacon!

Keeping with my focus of my recent articles on prayer, I recall a few years ago when I was approached by a few parishioners at Our Lady of the Ozarks seeking approval to pray the St. Michael Prayer before or at the end of Mass. Many of my seasoned parishioners recall praying the prayer at the conclusion of Mass. Pope Francis even suggested including the prayer at the end of Mass as a reminder to call upon St. Michael’s protection. While there was good intention behind the request to pray the St. Michael prayer, Fr. Dave Hulshof (pastor of Branson and Forsyth at the time) said no. He said including this devotional prayer was not in accordance with the Mass norms established by Vatican II. 

At the end of the 19th Century, Pope Leo XIII requested the prayer to St. Michael be recited after Low Masses, the so-called Leonine Prayers. This custom held until 1964 when the Leonine Prayers were suppressed at the Second Vatican Council (AAS 56, p. 888 par. 48. J). Suppressed implies that we should not pray the prayer in connection with Mass. Sacrosanctum Concilium (the Church’s Constitution on the Liturgy) states, “Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority” (SC 22). When the Priest, or Deacon, proclaims the words that the Mass has ended – the Mass has indeed ended. In fact, there is no requirement for anyone to stay once these words of dismissal have been spoken.

The Roman rite makes no provision for the recitation of prayers after the dismissal. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (No. 90) states that the concluding rites consist of: a) brief announcements, if necessary; b) the priest’s final blessing, which on certain days and occasions is enriched and expressed in the prayer over the people; c) the dismissal of the people by the deacon or the priest to go out to do good works, praising and blessing God; d) the kissing of the altar by the priest and the deacon, followed by a profound bow to the altar by the priest, the deacon, and the other ministers. 

While it is arguably problematic when devotional prayers are added after the words of dismissal, one can point out that there is also no mention of a recessional hymn at the end of Mass. However, singing a recessional hymn is a widespread custom in parishes, especially on Sundays. Nonetheless, a recessional hymn has never been prescribed in the Roman rite. It is merely a custom, one that the General Instruction is silent on. It is neither forbidden nor prescribed. 

Probably the best approach is simply to let our liturgy be the liturgy and, in general, follow the wise prescriptions of the reformed rite from Vatican II. To be sure, liturgical law is not absolute. There will be cases where pastoral sensitivity suggests flexibility. It has always been so, throughout liturgical history. But we should not change the rite unless we have very good reasons to do so.

The St. Michael prayer is a beautiful prayer. It affirms an intrinsic desire to pray against evil. It’s a good prayer to recite. We should pray it often and include it in our devotional prayers when praying 

Author Bio:
 Deacon Dan Vaughn