And with your spirit

Five key moments in the liturgy

The blessing and response appears five times:

• Introductory Rite.
• Before the Gospel.
• In the Preface.
• Communion Rite.
• Dismissal.

Origin of "Domine vobiscum"

"Boaz himself came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, 'The LORD be with you!' and they replied, 'The LORD bless you!'" (Ruth 2:4).

The Hebrew says nothing about 'and with your spirit.'

Pauline roots: "With your spirit"

If these passages stand behind the tradition of "et cum spiritu tuo," they do not fit the theory that the spirit is a ministerial, sacramental spirit. Paul, the apostle of the Lord, greets the community. In the liturgy, "et cum spiritu to" is said by the congregation to the minister. I suspect that the early Church forgot why this phrase was used and later generations filled in the blanks.

The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. (2 Timothy 4:22).

ο κυριος ιησους χριστος μετα του πνευματος σου. η χαρις μεθ υμων.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. (Galatians 6:18).

η χαρις του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου μετα του πνευματος υμων αδελφοι. αμην.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. (Philippians 4:23).

There seem to be two Greek variants for this passage.

η χαρις του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου μετα παντων υμων. αμην.

η χαρις του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου μετα του πνευματος. αμην.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Colossians (4:18).

η χαρις μεθ υμων. αμην.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Philemon (1:25).

η χαρις του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου μετα πνευματος υμων. αμην.

Why the variation in Paul's letters?

"Most of the Pauline letters end with the wish that the grace of Christ may be with those to whom he has written: 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all' (2 Cor 13:13) or 'The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you' (1 Cor 16:23; 1 Thess 5:28; 2 Thess 3:18) or simply 'Grace be with you' (Col 4:18; 1 Tim. 6:21; Titus 3:15; cf Eph 6:13). Why then, in the four Epistles mentioned above, does he express the wish that the grace of Christ may be with their spirit. What, if anything, does this add to his greeting?

"It would seem that St Paul always regards the human spirit as a God-given spirit. For the Christian it is a new thing, which, though a created part of the Christian’s nature, is received from God, set in the believer by God: 'For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God' (Rm 8:15-16; cf 1 Thess 5:23). Fundamentally there is for St Paul only one Spirit of God imparted severally to individuals (cf Rm 1:9; 2 Cor 11:4). It would seem then that in the four cases in which St Paul changes the 'with you' of his final greeting to 'with your spirit' he wants to do two things: he wants to remind his readers of the special human participation in the Spirit of God which they have received, and because he speaks of 'your (plural) spirit' he seems to be referring to something that exists in, or has been received in common by, the whole church to which he is writing."

Hebrew Roots

"Christians probably took these formulas over directly from the synagogue. There is clear evidence, for example, in St. Justin Martyr (100-165) that Christians spoke these answers from the very beginning.

"The fact that from the earliest times Christians conserved these phrases in their original form, in spite of their being foreign to both Greek and Latin mentalities, is a good argument to keep them intact in our current translations. In this way, we maintain a living connection with Christianity's historical origins just as we do with the conservation of other Hebrew forms and expressions such as Amen, Alleluia and Hosanna.

"The formula 'be with you' is considered as a greeting, of benevolence and of recognition of a reality: The Lord is present. The Semitic response, 'And with your spirit,' literally means 'And also with you,' as 'your spirit' literally means 'your person.' Therefore the current English translation could be considered as an accurate rendering of the Hebrew background."

Reverence for the Ministering Spirit

"The Greek word for spirit, pneuma, is never used in the Old Testament to render nephesh, but only when translating ruah. Thus, it seems clear that the use of 'spirit' in the liturgy is not intended merely as a euphemism for 'you' but bears some other special theological significance. ... The spirit' mentioned here refers specifically to the spirit received in ordination. It is an affirmation by the assembly that the ordained minister has received the appropriate anointing with the spirit to make him the leader in sacramental ministry. This usage has a special beauty: it is less about the person of the priest than about the office of the priesthood, which is supported and guaranteed by the Spirit of God given in ordination. Early Church Fathers, such as John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Narsai of Nisibis, and Abraham bar Lipheh explicitly back this interpretation.

"One scriptural usage may be set in objection to this interpretation: Galatians 6:18, Philippians 4:23, and Philemon 25 all use 'spirit' in a more general sense as addressed to the whole Church: 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.' Saint Paul is not referring here to the particular gifts of the Spirit possessed by each member of the local Church, because 'spirit' is in the singular. Rather, he is referring to that gift of the Spirit which each local Church possesses in so far as it is a unity in Christ for the worship of the Father (Milner, p. 206)."

"What do the people mean when they respond 'and with your spirit'? The expression et cum spiritu tuo is only addressed to an ordained minister. Some scholars have suggested that spiritu refers to the gift of the spirit he received at ordination. In their response, the people assure the priest of the same divine assistance of God’s spirit and, more specifically, help for the priest to use the charismatic gifts given to him in ordination and in so doing to fulfill his prophetic function in the Church."

Links

• Dominus vobiscum.
• Liturgiam authenticam.

56. Certain expressions that belong to the heritage of the whole or of a great part of the ancient Church, as well as others that have become part of the general human patrimony, are to be respected by a translation that is as literal as possible, as for example the words of the people’s response Et cum spiritu tuo, or the expression mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa in the Act of Penance of the Order of Mass.