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The Risen Lord appearing to his Blessed Mother

The Concluding Rite is quite simple. It includes:

Once the Prayer after Communion is concluded, the priest greets us in the usual manner, extending his hands. As he receives our answer, he blesses us with these words:

Amen, we answer.

On certain days or occasions, a more solemn form of blessing or prayer over the people may be used.

Then the priest gives us the sign of dismissal:

or some other formula, like:

We reply as always:

The priest kisses the altar as at the beginning. Then he makes the proper reverence (a low bow --or a genuflection, if the Blessed Sacrament is there) with the ministers and leaves.

* * *

This part of the ceremony reveals the true character of the Mass. It is not a crowd watching a beautiful memorial service. It is the Church gathered around the altar, together with Christ her Head, who offers the sacrifice of the cross. Therefore, one should not think that anyone could come at any time, pray there as he fancies, and go away when he likes. We, therefore, stand while the priest and the ministers leave the sanctuary. We feel part of the Church and members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

* * *

The Mass is finished, we are encouraged to return to our ordinary occupations to love and serve the Lord. We serve the Lord while fulfilling our usual norms of piety, resting, or working in the presence of God. In this way we constantly keep alive those dispositions we had during the Mass.

* * *

When the Lord was about to crown his work on earth, he asked his Father, "Keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us. I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world" (Jn 17:11.15‑16).

The Lord does not want us removed from our surroundings, our work or our social relationships. He wants us in the world so that we might sanctify and improve it, and place at God's feet all souls and institutions, all political life and all activities in general.

St. Josemaria Escriva points out for us, "Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are. There you have your daily encounter with Christ. It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind."[1]

Therefore the Mass should not be taken as a kind of escape from our duties. "Have no doubt: any kind of evasion from the honest realities of daily life is for you, men and women of the world, something opposed to the will of God."[2] On the contrary, we should turn to our daily occupations to find God also in these pursuits. Thus, we will avoid leading a double life --"On one side, an interior life, a life of relation with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life, full of small earthly realities.

"No! We cannot lead a double life. We cannot be like schizophrenics, if we want to be Christians. There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both, soul and body, holy and filled with God. We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things. There is no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find him."[3]

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