Q: So, we just had a faculty Mass with our new priest. After the dismissal he added the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel. I know it was “suppressed” at the Second Vatican Council and that some bishops have started to promote it recently. Do you know of an article that speaks to the reasons for its suppression? What do you think? I know you’re a busy man so let it go if it’s not easy to respond. It’s just one of those things that drives me crazy.
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A: Here’s an earlier post on my blog: https://paulturner.org/prayers-after-communion/
I treat the suppression of such prayers briefly in my book At the Supper of the Lamb. One reason for the addition of the silence after communion was to keep the Mass from ending abruptly after the removal of the Last Supper and final prayers (p. 147).
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy 22 §3 says “no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”
One priest told me that he was adding the prayer to St. Michael “after” Mass, not “during” Mass. But he still had his vestments on. He had not exited yet. I don’t find such arguments compelling.
I keep saying that if all of us, priest and people, put our hearts fully into the Mass we have, it will satisfy all spiritual needs.