Also known as:
Postcommunion, Post-Communion;
Latin: Ad complendum, Ad completa, ad Communionem
POSTCOMMUNION. - In the Latin rite (Roman, Ambrosian, Gallican and Mozarabic) it is the prayer said by the priest after Communion and after the people's chant at the Communio, introduced with Dominus vobiscum; it is therefore called P. (sometimes also ad Communionem) already in the so-called Gelasian books, while in the Gregorian it reads Ad complendum or Ad completa, that is, to complete the Holy Mass.
The P. is recited, once the sacrifice is finished, "in cornu Epistolae", no longer in the middle of the altar. Together with the Collect and the Secret ("Super Oblata" of the Gregorian), the P. is found in the very ancient texts of the Latin rite of the 5th-6th century; it has the same structure as these prayers, varies according to the feasts and links the Communion with them or with the period of the ecclesiastical year. In the Latin rite the P. is not so much a thanksgiving for the Communion, as in the Eastern liturgy, but rather a supplication, so that the Communion may have its full efficacy, may be purification from sins (remedium, subsidium, munimen, medicina caelestis), a pledge of eternal life ("redemptionis nostrae pignus", "immortalitatis almonia"), unity with Christ ("inter eius membra numeramur, cuius corpori communicamus et sanguini").
Bibliography4 worksP. Batiffol, Lecons sur la Messe, Paris 1923, pp. 296-99; G. Brinktrine, La S. Messa, Rome 1945, p. 263; M. Righetti, Manuale di storia litu
BIBL.: P. Batiffol, Lecons sur la Messe, Paris 1923, pp. 296-99; G. Brinktrine, La S. Messa, Rome 1945, p. 263; M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, III, Milan 1949, pp. 436-37; J. A. Jungmann, Missarum Sollemmia, II, Vienna 1949, pp. 500-16.
Siffrin, Pietro. “Postcommunio.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, col. 1839. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/postcommunio.
MLA
Siffrin, Pietro. “Postcommunio.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 1839. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/postcommunio.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec9_postcommunio,
author = {Siffrin, Pietro},
title = {Postcommunio},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IX},
pages = {1839},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/postcommunio}
}
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