Kyrie Eleison: One of the oldest prayers of the Church, dating from the earliest days of Christianity (hence the Greek: Kyrie Eleison = “Lord have mercy”). In the Bible, it is found frequently in the Psalms, and is echoed in the pleas of those who beg healing from Jesus in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Taken up by us at the start of every mass, it is the universal cry of the Church for the mercy of God – for us, for those we love, and for this world – as we come into God’s presence to worship Him.
Sanctus and Benedictus: Sanctus is the Latin word for “holy”. The words of this hymn come from the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly hosts worshipping God: “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3). At the moment in the mass when we sing these words, we fall to our knees, because our worship joins in a very real way with the worship in heaven, our voices with those of the angels. The second part of this hymn begins with the words Benedictus qui venit = “Blessed is He that cometh”. These are the words with which the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9) We sing them at this moment in the mass to welcome Jesus into our midst as He brings to us, in the Holy Eucharist, the very life He poured out for us that week in Jerusalem. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings…” (Isaiah 52:7).
Agnus Dei: (Agnus Dei = “Lamb of God”) A hymn dating from the 7th century but drawn from the Bible. For the ancient Hebrews, the blood of a lamb was the instrument of God’s deliverance, through which the Lord spared His people from death and rescued them from slavery in Egypt (cf. Exodus 12). The Jewish people were to remember this event every year at the feast of the Passover, when the sacrificial lamb became a sign of God’s redemption. This is why Christians came to see Jesus as the Passover Lamb, the ultimate sign of God’s redemption. After the great thanksgiving and consecration of the mass, before we rise from our knees to share in the communion, we are invited, with the words of John the Baptist, to adore the Lamb, Jesus our redeemer, who gave His life so that we might know how immeasurably we are loved. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)