36. The Lord's Prayer & Peace

The first prayer of the communion rite is the Our Father. We can see in this prayer the same rhythm as we have seen in the rest of the liturgy. We perceive all the motions in the praise of God. Then we ask God for thinks. This serves a purpose similar to grace before meals. It is a prayer always in the plural. We pray as a family, not just as individuals. Subsequently, the priest prays a prayer for peace. He exhorts the people to share the customary sign of peace. It is interesting that the Jewish word for peace, "shalom," is virtually untranslatable. It means hospitality, well-wishing, health, etc. Shaking a person's hand, he or she also stands vicariously for all people, especially if there is someone we have hurt. This further disposes us to Christ. Immediately after that, the priest breaks the consecrated bread. It has a reverse meaning from the natural; instead of signifying division, it denotes unity. The priest takes one particle of the host to drop into the chalice. There is a reuniting, by sign value only, of the two elements.