Q: Are the words of consecration supposed to be spoken loud enough for the people to hear them or can the priest whisper the words so inaudibly that no one in the congregation can hear them?
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A: The entire eucharistic prayer is to be prayed in a full voice. GIRM 78 says that the priest associates the people with himself in the prayer, and that the faithful join with Christ in confessing the great deeds of God. “Everybody listens to it with reverence and in silence.” The Sacramentary (2nd edition of the Roman Missal and previous English translation) carried a rubric that stated, “In all Masses, the priest may say the Eucharistic Prayer in an audible voice.” This led some priests to think that they had the option of reciting the prayer in an inaudible voice. But that rubric appeared only in English and only in the American edition; it was not in the Latin. The current English translation has correctly removed it.