During Mass, why do we pause at the end of the Lord’s Prayer for the priest to add his part, and then finish? There are actually 3 different things being said (prayed) at this time.
First is the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Next, what the priest says is called the embolism. (GREEK, meaning ‘insertion’) It simply expands upon the last words of the ‘Our Father; it is a prayer that continues the final sentiment of what we all just prayed, to deliver us from all manners of evil.
Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Finally, what comes next is called the Doxology (a ‘prayer of praise’). For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.
These words were never originally part of the Lord’s Prayer. Jewish custom included doxologies in communal prayer, particularly at the end, and the doxology is seen as an addition used in early communal worship. The earliest christian writing that includes the doxology is the Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles). Didache [Didah- kay] simply means ‘teaching.’ The “Our Father” in the Didache had the doxology tagged onto the end without the words “the kingdom,” which were added later. The tradition of the doxology was carried into the Liturgy, and became so closely associated with the Lord’s Prayer that it is now often considered to be part of the prayer itself.