After Communion

When the Communion is over, the priest rinses and dries the chalice and then says the Post Communion Prayer, after which everyone joins in a prayer thanking God for feeding us with the Body and Blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.  In this prayer we also offer ourselves to God and end by saying:

“Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory. 
Amen”. (3)

The Dismissal

A final hymn may be sung and then we kneel down and the priest gives the Blessing.  We make the sign of the Cross, this time as a reminder that the Crucifixion was the price Jesus had to pay in order to be able to give us his blessing.  Then the priest says:

“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”

and everyone replies:

“In the name of Christ.  Amen”.

From Easter to Pentecost the words are different.  The priest says:

“Go in the peace of Christ.  Alleluia, alleluia”. 

And we reply:

“Thanks be to God.  Alleluia, alleluia”. (4)

So at the end of the Eucharist, God sends us back from his Throne in Heaven into the world again to live as his true children – loving, trusting, obeying and imitating him – and as faithful friends of his Son Jesus Christ.

Finally, the priest and servers leave the altar and the Eucharist is over.  And so once again we have done what Jesus did at the Last Supper and what he commanded us to do for the re-calling of him.  He took bread and wine (that is the Offertory), he gave thanks (the Consecration), he broke the Bread (the Fraction), and he gave it to his Apostles (the Communion).  And it is these four actions which together make the Eucharist.