Q: Peace! Our Monastery has exposition after our daily Mass until Vespers. We have been exposing the Blessed Sacrament after Communion and the priest then closes Mass with the post- Communion prayer and eliminates the Concluding Rite.
We do not have Benediction at the end of our exposition after Vespers. Some of our chaplains think it is proper to say the Concluding Rite for Mass after we have exposed the Blessed Sacrament and others think because exposition flows from the Mass, we should keep doing as we have been.
What is your thought on the matter?
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A: Keep doing as you have done.
The rite of exposition and benediction envisions the option that a deacon gives the final blessing (97), which tells me that the priest may have left the room. In the absence of an ordained minister, a duly appointed lay minister may repose the Blessed Sacrament (91).
Similarly, at funerals and at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the concluding rites of the Mass are replaced by other ceremonies and prayers.