[note 1] The 1962 canon, according to the Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, IX, of the 1962 Roman Missal, is spoken in a tone described as silentio, a word that in the context of liturgy is officially translated into English as "quietly".
[5] The English version of Nicholas Gihr's book on the Mass translates secreto as "silently", but explains that it means that the canon is to be said not in absolute silence but "in a voice so subdued that the celebrant may hear himself, but not be heard by those around him".
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which covers the ground previously occupied by the Ritus servandus of pre-1970 editions, states: "The nature of the 'presidential' texts demands that they be spoken in a loud and clear voice and that everyone listen with attention.
[10] Different reasons are proposed to explain why from the seventh century, beginning in Gaul, priests in the West came to pray the Roman Canon inaudibly for all but themselves.
[12] The spread of the practice from East Syria, where it had originated, to the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire is witnessed to by Emperor Justinian's legislation against it in 565, a time when it was still unknown in Rome.
[13] Uwe Michael Lang proposes another factor for its adoption in the West: the impossibility for the priest of making his voice heard in the vast Roman basilicas and other large churches.
He says the rest of the prayer with hands extended within the limits then indicated for that posture: neither higher nor wider than the shoulders, with fingers joined and palms facing each other.
The addition of the local bishop and "all the worshippers of the orthodox, catholic, and apostolic faith" (not limited to clergy) is found in manuscripts from the mid-ninth century on, often with the mention of the civil ruler ("et rege nostro").
[17] Because of the diversity of religious attitude of civil rulers in the 16th century, Pope Pius V omitted mention of the king in the Roman Missal that he issued in 1570 in response to the decrees of the Council of Trent.
[19][20][21] Editions of the Roman Missal continued to be printed in various places with "et rege nostro N.", such as one in Naples in 1853, only a few years before the overthrow of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The words "et beati Ioseph, eiusdem Virginis Sponsi" ("blessed Joseph, Spouse of the same Virgin") were added by Pope John XXIII in 1962.
In the 1970 Canon, it is optional to say the bracketed parts: the names of saints from James (the brother of John) to Damian, and the conclusion "Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
None of them mentions Jesus' raising his eyes to heaven, but Pope Benedict XIV states that it is a tradition that Christ did so, as He did at the miracle of the loaves and fishes[34] as noted in the Synoptic Gospels' accounts of the feeding of the five thousand.
The mention of Jesus' raising his eyes to God at the Last Supper is also found in the text of the ancient anaphora of the liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions.
As directed by the rubrics in all versions of the Roman Canon, the priest accompanies with similar actions the words about taking and looking up, but does not break or distribute the bread at this point.
Except in the original 1570 edition of the Roman Missal,[39] the rubrics of the Canon down to 1962 direct him to bow his head at the words "tibi gratias agens".
[40] In the 1962 Canon, the priest, immediately after pronouncing "the words of consecration", genuflects in adoration of the consecrated host, rises and "shows it to the people" ("ostendit populo") − the action commonly called the elevation, since the Ritus servandus tells the priest to raise it as high as he comfortably can − after which he replaces it on the corporal, keeps his thumbs and index fingers joined, and then genuflects again.
[32] In the 1970 Canon, the priest shows the host to the people immediately after the consecration, replaces it on the paten and genuflects in adoration, and has no obligation to keep thumbs and index fingers joined.
At Maundy Thursday, the Qui pridie prayer adds the phrases "pro nostra omniumque salute" ("for our salvation and the salvation of all") and "hoc est hodie" ("that is today") thus: "Qui pridie, quam pro nostra omniumque salute pateretur, hoc est, hodie, accepit panem ..." The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which applies to the 1970 Canon, states: "A little before the Consecration, if appropriate, a server rings a small bell as a signal to the faithful.
"[42] The signal preceding the Consecration is not mentioned ìn relation to the 1962 Canon, but its Ritus servandus directs that a server, while lifting the rear of the priest's chasuble during the elevations, should with his right hand ring a bell three times or continuously.
[32] The Letter to the Hebrews does have the prayer, "May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant (Vulgate: in sanguine testamenti aeterni) equip you with everything good"[44] On "mysterium fidei", see the following section.
The 1962 Canon separates the latter phrase from the other words of Jesus by an action that excludes them from the act of consecration, instructing the priest to say it when already genuflecting before the chalice in adoration.
It replaces the statement, "Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis" ("As often as you do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of me"), with the instruction, "Hoc facite in meam commemorationem" ("Do this in memory of me").
The 1962 and earlier forms of the Roman Canon included among the words attributed to Jesus in connection with the consecration of the chalice the phrase "mysterium fidei" (1 Tim.
[32] In the 1970 Roman Canon, the phrase "Mysterium fidei", removed from the context of the words of Jesus, is said or sung by the priest after consecrating the chalice, showing it to the people, and genuflecting in adoration.
The third derives from the third antiphon which the Roman Missal prescribes that the choir chant while the Blessed Sacrament is brought to the altar after the Veneration of the Cross during the Good Friday Liturgy.
Writing in 1908, Adrian Fortescue noted: "At the final clause "Per eumdem", etc., the priest not only folds his hands but bows the head — a unique case in the Roman Rite, for which there has not been found any satisfactory explanation.
"[32][52] The peculiarity of this rubric was noted also by Prosper Guéranger: "The Priest terminates the Prayer, in the usual manner: Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum.
Apart from a minuscule matter of punctuation, the texts differ only in the bracketing of the saints not mentioned in the New Testament and whose names the priest may in the 1970 form choose either to include or to omit.
These are the only words between the Sanctus and the closing "Per omnia saecula saeculorum" that, in the 1962 Canon, the priest speaks audibly enough to be heard by anyone other than himself ; even then he does so only "raising his voice a little", and only at Low Mass.