The Secret (Latin Secreta,
sc. oratio secreta) is the prayer said in a low voice by the celebrant
at the end of the Offertory in the Roman Liturgy. It is the original
and for a long time was the only offertory prayer. It is said in a low
voice merely because at the same time the choir sings the Offertory,
and it has inherited the special name of Secret as being the only
prayer said in that way at the beginning. The silent recital of the
Canon (which is sometimes called "Secreta", as by Durandus, "Rat. div.
off.", IV, xxxv), did not begin earlier than the sixth or seventh
century, Cardinal Bona thinks not till the tenth (Rer. liturg., II, 13,
§1). Moreover all our present offertory prayers are late additions, not
made in Rome till the fourteenth century. Till then the offertory act
was made in silence, the corresponding prayer that followed it was our
Secret. Already in "Apostolic Const.", VIII, XII, 4, the celebrant
receiving the bread and wine, prays "silently" (Brightman "Eastern
Liturgies", p. 14), doubtless for the same reason, because a psalm was
being sung. Since it is said silently the Secret is not introduced by
the invitation to the people: "Oremus". It is part of the Proper of the
Mass, changing for each feast or occasion, and is built up in the same
way as the Collect (q.v.). The Secret too alludes to the saint or
occasion of the day. But it keeps its special character inasmuch as it
nearly always (always in the case of the old ones) asks God to receive
these present gifts, to sanctify them, etc. All this is found exactly
as now in the earliest Secrets we know, those of the Leonine
Sacramentary. Already there the Collect, Secret, Postcommunion, and
"Oratio ad populum" form a connected and homogeneous group of prayers.
So the multiplication of Collects in one Mass entailed a corresponding
multiplication of Secrets. For every Collect the correspondingSecret is
said.
The name "Secreta" is used
in the "Gelasian Sacramentary"; in the Gregorian book these prayers
have the title "Super oblata". Both names occur frequently in the early
Middle Ages. In "Ordo Rom. II" they are: "Oratio super oblationes
secreta" (P.L., LXXVIII, 973). In the Gallican Rite there was also a
variable offertory prayer introduced by an invitation to the people
(Duchesne, "Origines du culte", Paris, 1898, pp. 197-8). It has no
special name. At Milan the prayer called "Oratio super sindonem"
(Sindon for the veil that covers the oblata) is said while the
Offertory is being made and another "Oratio super oblata" follows after
the Creed, just before the Preface. In the Mozarabic Rite after an
invitation to the people, to which they answer: "Præsta æterne
omnipotens Deus", the celebrant says a prayer that corresponds to our
Secret and continues at once to the memory of the saints and
intercession prayer. It has no special name (P.L., LXXXV, 540-1). But
in these other Western rites this prayer is said aloud. All the Eastern
rites have prayers, now said silently, after the Great Entrance, when
the gifts are brought to the altar and offered to God, but they are
invariable all the year round and no one of them can be exactly
compared to our Secret. Only in general can one say that the Eastern
rites have prayers, corresponding more or less to our offertory idea,
repeated when the bread and wine are brought to the altar.
At either high or low Mass
the celebrant, having answered "Amen" to the prayer "Suscipiat Dominus
sacrificium", says in a low voice the Secret or Secrets in the same
order as he said the Collects, finding each at its place in the proper
Mass. He ends the first and last only with theform "Per Dominum
nostrum" (as the Collects). The last clause of the last Secret: "Per
omnia sæcula sæculorum" is said or sung aloud, forming the "ekphonesis"
before the Preface.
Written by Adrian Fortescue. Transcribed by Tony de Melo.
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume XIII. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
