And With Your Spirit

“I will be with you always, even until the end of the age”

These words of Jesus reveal the reality of the Holy Spirit that helps us remember all things and understand all things.  You and I live in the time of the Spirit.  The Church is the manifestation of the Spirit.  Baptism is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The sacraments are infused, enlivened and made effective by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all in all for us.  It is only right and appropriate that in the mass we acknowledge this gift.

For years we have participated in the most common dialogue in the Liturgy:

“The Lord be with you”.

“And also with you”

As a part of the new revised Roman Missal we will have a truer translation of this exchange:

“The Lord be with you.”

“And with your spirit”.

 It is clear that the change to “and with your spirit” is significant.

 What does the clergy mean when they say “The Lord be with you”?

By greeting the people with the words “The Lord be with you,”  the clergy express their desire that the dynamic activity of God’s spirit be given to and shared with the people of God, enabling all to do the work of transforming the world that God has entrusted to us.

What do the people mean when they respond “and with your spirit”?

 The simple answer is “a sharing in the Holy Spirit”.

 In their response, the people affirm the reality that we all share in the one Spirit and they offer the clergy the same divine assistance of God’s spirit and help for the clergy to use the charismatic gifts given to them in ordination and in so doing to fulfill their prophetic function in the Church.

The new dialogue is a truer translation of the Latin, it is also a truer sign of how the Holy Spirit runs through the whole Church, the Body of Christ.  It is a sign that in sharing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we all share in the life of the Lord who will be with us until the end of time.

The Lord be with you.