SECRETA (understood: oratio; Super oblata; Sacra). – The prayer of the Mass recited over the offerings before the Preface, called Super oblata in the Gregorian-type liturgical books.
The title S. appears in the Old Gelasian (cod. Vat. Reg. lat. 316, mid-8th c.) and even half a century earlier in the so-called Bobbio Missal (Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 1324) the term secreta is used collectively, perhaps indicating Gallican provenance. Jungmann explains the name from the Gallican custom of reciting this prayer in a low voice, whereas in the primitive Roman rite and still in the Ambrosian rite the prayer is said aloud. The difference between the ancient Roman usage and the new Gallican-Frankish one is seen in the rubric of Ordo XV, 35 (Andrieu, 102): “…he says the prayer over the oblations” (or oblatas secrete; cf. Ordo V, 58), “…so that only God and himself may hear it”; similarly in Ordo XVII, 46 (Andrieu, 181). This was done because of the strict silence imposed at this point in the Gallican liturgy, under Eastern influence. A testimony to the practice of reciting the S. in a low voice from the 7th–8th c. is found in a COMMODIANO (v.). Righetti, however, explains it by two concomitant liturgical actions—also of Eastern origin—one performed by the celebrant in secret, the other by the deacon aloud (the deacon recites the names of the offerers while the priest, to save time, says the prayer over the offerings). Other derivations, e.g., from secernere or secretio (separating the faithful from the catechumens, the offerings for consecration from those for mere blessing) or from an equivalent of benedictio or consecratio (Batiffol) or from a preparatory prayer to the Preface or the act of consecration, called S. (Brinktrine), are less plausible.
The S. entered the ordinary of the Mass together with the Collect, Postcommunio, and Super populum. At the time of Innocent I’s letter to Decentius in 416, it was not yet found there. Like the Collect, it is usually addressed to the Father and is a formula of oblation: “Accept…”; “We offer…”; it asks for the consecration of the gifts and implores sacramental graces; often it relates to the feast. The final part of its conclusion is sung aloud.