This synchronized gesture is hard to miss when you attend Mass.
Several priests concelebrating Mass during the Consecration of the Eucharist. It may seem normal, but this has only been part of the Roman liturgy for the past 60 years.
In fact, have you noticed there are several altars in some churches? There can be more than just one. This has an explanation.
Before the Second Vatican Council, only one priest could celebrate each Mass. If there was more than one priest, he would have to celebrate Mass individually at a different side altar.
But let us take a step back into the early Church. There, concelebration did exist, but not among priests—only with the bishop.
Since there were no liturgical books earlier in the Church, the bishop would improvise the prayer. Any priests present would be at the altar, but would remain silent. This practice gradually declined, disappearing completely in the 8th Century.
It was the Second Vatican Council that restored this tradition, but with two changes. These were set out in the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium.
First, priests now have the possibility of concelebrating Mass with one another, instead of celebrating individually at different altars.
The second: they can now recite the prayer during the Consecration, because it is no longer improvised as it was in the past. Everything is now standardized and written in the liturgical books where it can be read.
For example, at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, look at how the priests raise their hands and listen to how they join aloud in the Eucharistic Prayer.
It was during Vatican II that Mass was concelebrated for the first time with the new reforms. It was on September 26, 1965, at the Altar of the Confession in St. Peter’s Basilica.
AM/CA/JRB
