Sundays and feasts of Our Lord, or a doxology of praise to the Trinity on saints' days and ferials are recited. Several psalms are then said, together with the anthem of the sanctuary (variable for Sundays and feasts or Saints' days) and a prayer of praise and adoration.
The deacon then invites the people "to lift up their voices and glorify the living God", and they respond by reciting the Trisagion. Then the priest says a prayer and blesses the reader of the lessons. Ordinarily two lessons from the Old Testament are read, but during Eastertide a lesson from the Acts of the Apostles is substituted for the second Old Testament lesson. After an anthem and a prayer the deacon reads the third lesson (called the Apostle), which is taken from one of the epistles of St. Paul. The priest prepares for the Gospel by reciting the appropriate prayers and blessing the incense, and after the alleluia is sung he reads the Gospel. This is followed by its proper anthem, the diaconal litany, and a short prayer recited by the priest, after which the deacons invite the people "to bow their heads for the imposition of hands and receive the blessing" which the priest invokes upon them. The Mass of the catechumens is thus concluded, so the deacons admonish those who have not received baptism to depart, and the Mass of the faithful begins. The priest offers the bread and wine, reciting the prescribed prayers, covers the chalice and paten with a large veil, goes down from the altar and begins the anthem of the mysteries. The recital of the Creed at this point is a late addition to the liturgy.
Having entered within the arch, the priest makes the prescribed inclinations to the altar, washes his hands and begins the preparatory prayers for the anaphora. He recites an invitation to prayer corresponding to the Roman Orate fratres, and then beseeches the Lord not to regard his sins nor those of the people, but in all mercy to account him worthy to celebrate the mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ and worthily praise and worship the Lord, after which he crosses himself and the people answer "Amen." At this point on Sundays and feasts of Our Lord the deacon seems to have read the diptychs, called by the Nestorians the "Book of the Living and the Dead." The kiss of peace is then given, and a prayer recited for all classes of persons in the church. The anaphora proper begins with the preface. The deacon now invites the people to pray, and the priest recites a secret prayer, lifts the veil from the offerings, blesses the incense, and prays that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all now and ever world without end", and signs the mysteries, and the people answer "Amen." The priest then begins the preface with the words: "Lift up your minds." The preface is followed by the sanctus and the anamnesis (commemoration of Christ). In present usage the words of institution are here inserted, although they seem to have little connection with the context. He pronounces a short doxology, and signs the mysteries, and the people answer "Amen."
After the deacon says "Pray in your minds. Peace be with us," the priest recites quietly the great intercession or memento. The epiclesis, or invocation of the Holy Ghost, follows as a sort of continuation of the intercession. The priest then says a prayer for peace and one of thanksgiving, and incenses himself and the oblations, reciting the appropriate prayers in the meantime. While the deacon recites a hymn referring to the Eucharist, the priest, taking the Host in both hands, says a prayer alluding to the life-giving power of this bread which came down from Heaven (in the Chaldean Uniat liturgies the words of institution are placed after the first part of this prayer), breaks the Host into two parts, one of which he places on the paten, while with the other he signs the chalice, and after dipping it into the chalice signs the other half of the Host, reciting meanwhile the proper prayers for the consignation. Joining the parts together he says a prayer referring to the ceremonies just completed, cleaves with his thumb the Host where it was dipped in the chalice, signs his forehead with his thumb, and recites a prayer of praise to Christ and to the Trinity. After kissing the altar, he invokes a blessing upon all—"The grace of Our Lord" etc., as quoted above.
While the priest breaks the Host, the deacon invites the people to consider the meaning of these holy mysteries and to have the proper dispositions for receiving them; to forgive the transgressions of others, and then to beseech the Lord to forgive their own offences. The priest, continuing this idea, introduces the Lord's Prayer (which all recite) and says a prayer that expands the last two petitions. After a short doxology the priest gives the Chalice to the deacon, blesses the people, and then both distribute Communion. A special anthem is said during the distribution. The deacon then invites all who have received Communion to give thanks, and the priest recites aloud a prayer of thanksgiving and one of petition. Mass is concluded with a blessing pronounced by the priest over the people. The chief characteristic in this, as in the other Nestorian liturgies, is the position of the general intercession or memento. It occurs, not after the epiclesis as in the Syrian liturgies, but immediately before it. It seems to be a continuation of the anamnesis. Of minor differences, it might be noted that the Nestorians use one large veil to cover paten and chalice; they use incense at the preface; and they have two fractions of the Host, one symbolical recalling the passion of Christ, the other necessary for the distribution of Communion.
Liturgia SS. Apostolorum Addei et Maris in Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western (Oxford, 1896), I; Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals (London, 1852); Ermoni in Dict. d'archéol. caret. (Paris, 1903), col. 519; Renaudot, Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio (Frankfort, 1847), II; Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis (Rome, 1728), III; Neale, History of the Holy Eastern Church (London, 1858), I.
Addis, William F., See Catholic Dictionaries.
Addresses, Ecclesiastical.—It is from Italy that we derive rules as to what is fitting and customary in the matter of ecclesiastical correspondence. These rules the different Catholic nations have adopted with greater or lesser modifications, according to local conditions, resulting in differences which will be here dealt with.
Preliminaries.—Before describing how an address should be written, or how a letter to an ecclesiastical personage should be begun and ended, it may be well to say that the paper must always be white, no other colour being allowed. The size and form of stationery considered appropriate is that known in Italy as palomba; it is used by the Roman Congregations, and is so called because it has the watermark of a dove (It., palomba). In other countries the paper used for protocols or ministerial correspondence may be employed, but it should be handmade, as both stronger and more suitable. The ink must always be black; coloured inks are forbidden; first, because they are contrary to traditional usage, and next because they are liable to changes, having, for the most part, a basis of aniline or of animal oil; moreover, these inks on being exposed to the light lose colour rapidly and soon make the letter impossible to read. The letter must be written as our fathers wrote, and not, as business letters are now sometimes written, first on the right hand sheet and then on the left, in inverse order to that of the leaves of a book. This is expressly laid down in an instruction issued by Propaganda when Monsignor
