Introíbo ad Altáre Dei – the Prayer and the Posters
At our parish of Holy Rosary, the clergy and servers pray Psalm 43 (42) before Mass in the narthex. Well, since we were forced to move to the auditorium this past November, we pray it in the hallway outside. This psalm begins with the antiphon, “I will go to the altar of God”, or in Latin, “Introíbo ad altáre Dei”. Liturgy geeks will recognize this as the psalm that in the Extraordinary Form is part of the prayers at the foot of the altar.
Even though this prayer was removed from the Mass in 1964, there is no reason not to pray it beforehand. Indeed, historically this prayer was intended to be said in preparation for Mass and gradually got absorbed into the Mass. When Rome removed it, I believe they intended that it be returned to its historic place as a devotion of the ministers before Mass.
Traditionally, this was prayed in Latin, but we pray it in English. The poster I put together to facilitate this has both the English and Latin text, and Father Wagner always used to joke with the servers, “next week, we’ll do it in Latin”.
I can’t even begin to explain how praying this with the servers calms them down and focuses them for the awesome task ahead. For those parishes who may wish to restore this practice, I have made this poster available for sale. The poster is 24 x 36 inches on glossy stock and is suitable for framing.
Recently, I was asked if I had a version of this poster in Spanish. Well, I didn’t. But now I do.
This is identical to the Latin/English version in every respect, except obviously that it’s Latin/Spanish. Since Spanish is a Romance language, it was much simpler to do the layout than the English version had been.
So if you’re interested in restoring this ancient tradition before your Masses, whether in Latin, English, or Spanish, drop by the shop and give them a look.