Blessing in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

Blessing in Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the final benediction in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer order for Holy Communion. It follows the Gloria in excelsis or a proper hymn and sends the kneeling congregation from the eucharistic action under the peace and blessing of the Triune God.

The blessing is short, but it gathers several Prayer Book themes at once. Its first half adapts St. Paul's promise that the peace of God shall guard the faithful; its second half is an explicitly Trinitarian benediction. In the 1928 rite it is not an ornamental closing sentence. It is the final ministerial act after confession, absolution, consecration, Communion, thanksgiving, and praise.

Text in the 1928 BCP

The 1928 Holy Communion office gives the blessing after the post-communion Gloria:

Then, the people kneeling, the Priest (the Bishop if he be present) shall let them depart with this Blessing. THE Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: And the Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

The rubric names both posture and minister. The people kneel, and the priest pronounces the blessing; if a bishop is present, the bishop does so. That order makes the blessing both pastoral and ecclesial. The communicants do not bless themselves or merely hear a wish for their welfare. They receive a liturgical benediction through the ordained minister at the end of the sacramental office.

Scriptural Foundations

The opening words come from St. Paul's exhortation to prayer and thanksgiving:

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The Prayer Book form applies that promise to communicants who have prayed, confessed, received, and given thanks. Philippians says that God's peace shall "keep" the heart and mind "through Christ Jesus"; the 1928 blessing expands this into keeping "in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." The peace bestowed is therefore not a vague calm. It is the guarding peace of God in Christ.

The second half of the blessing is Trinitarian in structure, and it stands close to the apostolic benediction at the end of Second Corinthians:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

The 1928 text does not quote 2 Corinthians 13:14 directly; it uses the naming order "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." But the theological force is the same: the blessing is Christian because it is Trinitarian. The congregation departs not merely with religious encouragement but with the blessing of God Almighty confessed as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

The priestly background of blessing is also biblical. The Aaronic blessing gives the older scriptural grammar of divine keeping, grace, peace, and the Lord's name placed upon his people:

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

This does not make the Christian priest a Levitical priest, nor does it replace the once-for-all priesthood of Christ. It shows that a liturgical blessing is a biblical act: God's people are dismissed with divine keeping and peace. In Holy Communion that biblical pattern is now spoken in the name of the Triune God and after sacramental communion with Christ.

Anglican History

The first English source for the blessing's opening half is the 1548 Order of Communion. That order was an English insertion into the Latin Mass and ended its Communion administration with the Pauline peace:

Then shall the Priest, turning him to the people, let the people depart with this blessing:

THE peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

To the which the people shall answer,

Amen.

The 1549 Prayer Book then expanded the blessing into the form that later English and American books substantially retained:

Then the Priest turning hym to the people, shall let them depart with this blessing:

The peace of GOD (which passeth all understanding) kepe your hartes and mindes in the knowledge and love of GOD, and of his sonne Jesus Christ our Lorde: And the blessing of God almightie, the father, the sonne, and the holy gost, be emonges you and remayne with you alway.

Then the people shall aunswere.

Amen.

The 1662 English Prayer Book is almost identical in substance and position:

Then the Priest (or Bishop if he be present) shall let them depart with this Blessing. The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.

This continuity matters for reading the 1928 American rite. The American book is not improvising a twentieth-century conclusion; it inherits a Prayer Book blessing whose roots reach through 1549 to the 1548 Order of Communion and through that to earlier Western eucharistic practice.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere summarize that history in their account of the Communion office:

The Blessing which was added at the end of the service in 1549 to take the place of the blessing that was customary though not prescribed in the Latin Missals, consists of two parts. The first clause taken from Phil. iv. 7, was appointed in 1548 as the close of the administration in 'The Order of the Communion'; the second clause is that which was habitually used at the close of the special blessing which the Bishop, when he celebrated, pronounced after the Canon was completed; it was probably also the form used in giving the customary blessing at the end of Mass.

Procter and Frere's account gives a precise reason not to treat the 1928 blessing as a detachable devotional tag. It is a joined text: Pauline peace from 1548, plus a traditional episcopal or priestly benediction received into the English Prayer Book in 1549. The final blessing therefore belongs to the whole post-communion shape of the rite.

They also describe the post-communion order as it emerged after the 1552 revision:

At the same time the post-Communion service came, as has been shown, to consist of the Lord's Prayer, a Prayer of Oblation or of Thanksgiving, the Great Doxology, and the Blessing.

The 1928 order follows that inherited logic: the people pray, receive, give thanks, praise God, and then depart under blessing. The blessing is final because the service has reached its proper conclusion, not because the congregation is merely being dismissed.

Theological Meaning

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book gives a high-church theological reading of the blessing's form and office:

This beautiful Benediction is peculiar to the English Liturgy, both as to form and place. It is plainly intended to be a substitute for the Benediction anciently given after the Lord's Prayer and the Fraction of the Bread, and before the Agnus Dei. The latter half of it is analogous to a Benediction used in Anglo-Saxon times and given in the Appendix to Hickes' Letters, as well as in the Exeter Pontifical; the former half is a reversion from the old Liturgical form to one containing more of the actual words of Holy Scripture.

Blunt's first point is historical and textual: the blessing is distinctively English in its Prayer Book form, but it is not historically rootless. It combines Scripture with an older pattern of eucharistic benediction. His second point is theological and pastoral:

A comparison of the modern and ancient Rubrics will shew that this Blessing is to be considered a special sacerdotal act, belonging of right to the episcopal office, and devolving from it to the Priest, in the absence of the Bishop. As Absolution conveys actual pardon of sins to the true penitent, so does Benediction convey a real benefit to the soul when received in faith at the mouth of God's minister.

Classical Anglican interpretation can receive Blunt's language without confusing Benediction with a new sacrifice or with mechanical grace. The blessing is effective because God blesses through his Word and ministry; it is received "in faith," and it follows the one sufficient sacrifice of Christ already proclaimed in the Communion office. The rubric's preference for the bishop when present also fits Anglican episcopal order, while the priest's ordinary pronouncing of the blessing shows pastoral delegation within that order.

Clause by clause, the blessing sends communicants out under the gifts named in the service. "The Peace of God" answers the earlier confession, absolution, and Comfortable Words. "Keep your hearts and minds" asks for guarded perseverance after reception. "In the knowledge and love of God" makes doctrine and charity inseparable. "And of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord" keeps the blessing Christ-centered. "The Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" gives the benediction in full Trinitarian confession. "Be amongst you, and remain with you always" turns the end of the service toward the congregation's continuing life.

Pastoral and Catechetical Use

In parish teaching, the blessing is a compact summary of how Holy Communion concludes. The faithful do not leave merely because the rite has run out of words. They are dismissed as those who have received mercy, been fed with the spiritual food of Christ's Body and Blood, sung or said praise, and now receive the peace and blessing of God.

The 1928 rubric "the people kneeling" is therefore pastorally important. The people kneel to receive the blessing just as they have knelt for confession and Communion. Their posture says that Christian departure from the altar is still receptive. The final word of the service is not human achievement but divine peace.

The blessing also teaches a restrained Anglican sacramental theology. It is not a substitute for Communion, and it does not make the minister the source of grace. Yet it is more than a pious goodbye. The Prayer Book places a real benediction on the people at the end of the eucharistic action, spoken in the peace of Christ and in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Gloria in Excelsis (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Humble Access (1928 BCP)
• Administration of Communion (1928 BCP)
• Articles of Religion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Holy Communion PDF facsimile - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The Order of the Communion, 1548
• The Communion (1549)
• The Lord's Supper or Holy Communion - Church of England
• Procter and Frere: The Communion Service
• John Henry Blunt: The Annotated Book of Common Prayer