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When I moved to “the mission field” I was very surprised to find the bishop giving and the priests receiving the non-verbal nod of approval indicating whether the prayer was given right. I have seen bishops requiring the repeat as many as three times before accepting it. Now I haven’t pulled out my D&C to check for myself, but I seldom notice an egregious error. Now I grew up in the Mormon corridor, and
neverremember looking to the bishop for a nod of approval. I do remember being drilled a Sunday or two with my peers, but it was no big deal. But in the 20+ years since I moved away and 5 different bishops, this has been the consistent practice. I don’t remember this being a problem when on my mission to Germany, either. Well, last month I went to Church in Happy Valley, and watched the bishop intently. There was NO communication between the Priest and the Bishop. I don’t understand what’s so difficult about reading the prayer right, but I don’t understand why as a matter of routine bishops are doggedly pursuing exactness. IMO, if they cared so much they could just drill the kids in priesthood class till they get it “right”, rather than embarrassing them in front of the whole congregation.
So my question is: Is exactitude official church policy, or local preferences? What do other wards around the world do?
:The church handbook of instruction says the following: Handbook 2: Administering the Church; 20.4.3 – Blessing and Passing the Sacrament wrote:Following the hymn, the person who blesses the bread kneels and offers the sacrament prayer for the bread. The sacrament prayers were revealed by the Lord (see D&C 20:77, 79; Moroni 4–5). The bishop makes sure they are spoken clearly, accurately, and with dignity. If the person who blesses the sacrament makes an error in the wording but corrects it himself, no further correction is required. If the person does not correct an error, the bishop indicates that he should repeat the prayer correctly. In doing so, the bishop should be careful to avoid causing embarrassment or distracting from the sacred nature of the ordinance.
I’m sure the kids have it drilled into them but it can be a stressful event when it “goes live.” Getting it wrong the first time can just add to the stress for the second attempt.
The actual process of “the bishop makes sure they are spoken clearly, accurately, and with dignity” is up to local preference. Some units might have it set up such that the person blessing the sacrament always looks for a nod of approval, other units might have it set up such that that if something was amiss the bishop will say something but otherwise the assumption is made that all is well.
As an aside… there’s been a few times where the prayer wasn’t said correctly but I wasn’t the BP, so I didn’t say anything. I suppose the BP’s approval makes the prayer valid in such cases.
From the GHI 20.4.3: Quote:Following the hymn, the person who blesses the bread kneels and offers the sacrament prayer for the bread. The sacrament prayers were revealed by the Lord (see D&C 20:77, 79; Moroni 4–5). The bishop makes sure they are spoken clearly, accurately, and with dignity. If the person who blesses the sacrament makes an error in the wording but corrects it himself, no further correction is required. If the person does not correct an error, the bishop indicates that he should repeat the prayer correctly. In doing so, the bishop should be careful to avoid causing embarrassment or distracting from the sacred nature of the ordinance.
I have not ever lived in the MC, so I don’t know how it’s done there. Since I have lived here in upstate NY (mid-80s) it has generally been the custom of the bishop to give a nod of approval in accordance with the above instructions in both wards in which I lived and under each bishop. I do not recall this being the custom when I served a foreign mission, nor do I recall it prior to that when I lived n Texas. I do recall the bishop instructing the priests to look to him for approval when I served as a counselor. In reality mistakes are rarely made (I also remember being taught not to memorize it but to actually read it from the card), and when mistakes are made it’s rare the priest doesn’t correct it himself. I do recall one instance over this time where the individual repeated the prayer twice and both time made the same mistake (changed a word) and the bishop actually walked over to the table, pointed out the word he was changing, and then he did it correctly. I do think exactitude is official church policy and recall being taught the these prayers, along with the baptismal prayer, are the only ones outside the temple which must be done exactly as they are because of their sacred nature.
I don’t worry about it. No harm, no foul. Unless it’s done in a way that further embarrasses the individual. I hear it repeated almost weekly, sometimes as much as 5 times in a row. No big deal. I guess if the person is really nervous it could go on for a long time but you have people with many different personalities and we should except them. I hardly call this a imperfection, what then of my close friends with Tourette syndrome? Should they never have the opportunity to say the prayer? That would be pretty anal retentive messed up.
I think when I was a priest, we watched out for each other. If the person saying the prayer messed it up, they would just start over, and that probably took care of it 99% of the time. If he didn’t notice, the other priest would alert the one giving the prayer. I don’t remember the Bishop being involved, but I could have that wrong. I’m certain that we never looked over to the bishop for approval. He would have had to come over to the table if the priest giving the blessing messed up and the other priest didn’t notice, but I don’t remember that happening. It can be stressful, especially the first few times. I was lucky, because when I was first a priest, we still had junior sunday school, which was not only less pressure, but actually very enjoyable.
I don’t see any problem with requiring that it be done according to Hoyle. As long as any correction is just done as a matter of fact, not dramatically, and I’d say the vasts majority of “re-do”s are pretty uneventful.
Now, there are a few trap spots in the prayers that can get you if you’re not paying attention.
– “That they may eat it” instead of “That they may eat” is an easy mistake, because the blessing on the water says, “That they may do it”.
– “which was shed for them” only applies to the water, and there is no corresponding phrase for the bread, so sometimes that gets inserted
– LIkewise, in the prayer on the bread, “and keep his commandments” falls between always remembering and having his spirit to be with them, but there is nothing between always remembering and having his spirit in the prayer on the water, so I’ve occasionally heard priests trying to add it.
– In languages where nouns have gender, there is a special case. When reading the sacrament prayers from the D&C or Moroni, the demonstrative pronoun (this) for “this” wine isn’t necessarily the same word for “this” for water. In Spanish, for example, the wording is “este vino” in the scriptures, because wine is masculine, and “esta agua” in the sacrament prayer because water is feminine. Then, the pronoun for wine (“lo”) has to be substituted with the pronoun for water (“la”) in the phrase that follows (“all those who drink of
it“). So in the phrase, “this wine to the souls of all those to drink of it” the words “this”, “wine” and “it” must all be changed mentally. I believe in having it said correctly, but I am fine with tiny mistakes that don’t change the meaning at all. That’s just me, however. Most importantly, I believe a system should be established to ensure that mistakes are corrected as quickly as possible (immediately, so the person can make the correction without having to restart the prayer). Any time the prayer needs to be said more than twice, I see it as a failure of planning and leadership. I wrote the following post on my personal blog last May:
“
I Favor Some Simple Adaptations to the Blessing of the Sacrament” ( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2013/05/i-favor-some-simple-adaptations-to.html One of the best posts I’ve read about saying the sacrament prayer is titled “Ninety one words” and was written by Wilfried Decoo on Times and Seasons back in February 2005. It simply is stunning. “
Ninety one words” ( http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2005/02/ninety-one-words/ Thanks guys for the input. The handbook quote helps me understand where the exactitude is coming from, and how other approaches can also be quite legitimate. I rather like the priests being taught to help each other correct the mistake as it happens. I feel pain for the kids who have to repeat the whole prayer. There was a period of a few months where the prayer was repeated constantly — once, NINE TIMES because the priest couldn’t say it right It was a matter of judgment to say “fine, the congregation has had enough and the wording deviations were minor”. Thee Bishop didn’t get it. I like Curtis’s answer above. One of the few times I’ve actually had a spiritual experience during sacrament meeting was when a new priest had to repeat the prayer 4 or 5 times. I don’t know if it’s just because everyone was really really focused on the prayer, or if it was a feeling of love for the young man who was struggling, but it actually invited the Holy Ghost. Several other people commented on it (this was a F&T meeting) so I know I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I agree, Joni, that when our hearts really go out to someone (in a very literal way, by sending loving, compassionate feelings someone’s way) it can be a wonderful experience – like what is described in Bro. Decoo’s article to which I linked. That’s why I am totally fine with having it said as many as three times in order to get it right. There can be a communal connection in those cases that is profound and deeply moving. However, more than that causes a risk of real, deep, emotional trauma on the person saying the prayer –
and, most importantly, there are simple, easy ways to avoid making that happen. Helping someone learn to say it very slowly, word-by-word (which is how one of our current priests does it, due to his disability), or having another priest place his hand on the person’s shoulder and squeeze gently the instant a word is said wrong (so the person can re-state the phrase immediately and not have to start the prayer again from the beginning), are two of the easiest ways. Not just with regard to saying the sacrament prayer but relevant to almost everything in life, an exception for times when mistakes just happen is one thing; lack of systemic support that means someone has to repeat anything over and over and over again in public is another thing altogether.
I believe the exact wording is important only to the extent that we say it is. To presume that saying certain prescribed words makes something more sacred seems silly. Of course that is not what most TBM’s are thinking – they are likely thinking that we have these word for word prayers even though we generally are against prayer by rote – God must have a special reason – perhaps they are more sacred… IOW – everything in the true church must be the way God wants it to be or it wouldn’t be true. Now we just need to come up with speculative rationales for why things are the way they are (and God wants them to be) to fill in the gaps.
:thumbup: Roy wrote:IOW – everything in the true church must be the way God wants it to be or it wouldn’t be true. Now we just need to come up with speculative rationales for why things are the way they are (and God wants them to be) to fill in the gaps.
:thumbup:
And sadly that is what so much “doctrine” in the church rests upon.Here’s a food for thought question that’s rattled around in my brain for a while. It doesn’t merit its own thread, especially since I think it would fit nicely into this one. Over the last year or so there have been at least two or three separate occasions where I heard very slight aberrations to the sacrament prayer where the BP gave approval and the prayer was not repeated. It happened again yesterday and got me thinking:
1) The sacrament was “blessed” in that the prayer was spoken and the BP approved. The BP’s approval essentially trumped the minor mistake in the prayer.
2) The sacrament was not blessed but no biggie, we’ll catch you next week.
I guess my answer carries me in a third direction. That what’s important is the attitudes of the people partaking in the sacrament. That if everything was sincere on their end then that really trumps both the sacrament prayer and the BP’s approval of said prayer. I mean if the prayer is spoken perfectly, the BP gives approval, but someone isn’t focused on Christ the prayer and approval really don’t matter, the sacrament really isn’t taking effect for them.
In that sense the prayer and the approval are just there to create some consistency (but not necessarily
exactconsistency) to get people in the right frame of mind to take the sacrament. Interesting story, I served an American Sign Language mission and every person signed the prayer different. This is due to the fact that there’s lots of variety in sign language. The best way I can describe it is it’s like the difference between british, Australian, and American English. They’re all English but the meaning of words changes. Back to my point, despite the fact that no one did it the same, the bishop never tried to correct the person. I think it’s all in the meaning and messing up doesn’t mean the sacrament is somehow not blessed.
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