THE ELEVENTH TREATISE OF ST. PETER DAMIAN
The Book of ‘The Lord Be With You'
Many of the brethren, followers of the eremitic
life, have asked me whether, since they live alone in their cells, it is right
for them to say Dominus vobiscum, Jube, domne, benedicere, and the like;
and whether, despite the fact that they are by themselves, they should say the
responses, as the custom of the Church demands. Some of them argue the matter
within themselves in this way: 'Are we to ask a blessing of the stones and
furnishings of our cells, or say to them, "The Lord be with you?"
, Others fear that if they depart in any way from the prescribed order of the
Church they are guilty of sin, in so far as they are diminishing their duty of
divine service. …
Chapter Three
The phrase Dominus vobiscum is the priest’s
greeting to the people; he prays that the Lord may be with them, in accordance
with the words spoken by the Prophet: 'I shall dwell within them', and
with those spoken by our Savior to His disciples and all the faithful: 'Behold,
I am with you.' This form of greeting, then, is no mere innovation
instituted by human authority; it has the sanction of the ancient authority of
the Scriptures. Anyone who examines the holy writings carefully will find many
examples of its use, both in the singular and the plural. Did not the angel say
to the blessed Mother of God: 'The Lord is with thee'? And to Gideon
likewise: 'The Lord is with thee, thou mightiest of men'? In the book of
Ruth, too, we read that Boaz greeted his harvesters with the words: 'The
Lord be with you.' And in the Book of Chronicles we find that the prophet
sent by God hailed Asa King of Juda and his army as they were returning in
triumph from battle with these words: 'The Lord be with you, for you were
with the Lord.'
When the Church receives the salutary greeting of
the priest, she greets him in return, and in doing so prays that, as he has
desired that the Lord may be with them, so He may deign to be with him. 'And
with thy spirit', she replies, meaning: 'May almighty God be with your
soul, so that you may worthily pray to Him for our salvation.' Notice that
she says not 'with thee', but 'with thy spirit'; this is to
remind us that all things concerned with the services of the Church must be
performed in a spiritual manner. And certainly, God must prefer to be with a
man's spirit, for it is the soul of a reasonable man that is made in God's
image and likeness; it alone is capable of receiving divine grace and
illumination.
And the greeting which the bishop gives his
people: 'Peace be with you' or 'Peace to you', also has its roots
in the authority of Holy Writ, and is not just the product of man's mind. For
we read in the Old Testament that the angel said to Daniel 'Peace be to you';
and in the New Testament the Lord almost always greets His disciples with the
words 'Peace to you.' And He commended the same form of greeting to His
disciples, saying: 'Into whatsoever house you shall enter, salute it, saying:
…
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