Patristic Quote for the Day

Following is a fascinating tid-bit from St. Gregory the Great. He was being accused by a brother bishop of having introduced some "Greek" practices into the Roman Church's rite. And so he offers these curious words about the Our Father in the Eucharistic rite:

But the Lord's Prayer we say immediately after the prayer for this reason, that it was the custom of the apostles to consecrate the host of oblation to that same prayer only. And it seemed to me very unsuitable that we should say over the oblation a prayer which a scholastic had composed, and should not say the very prayer which our Redeemer composed over His body and blood. But also the Lord's Prayer among the Greeks is said by all the people, but with us by the priest alone.
---Gregory the Great (Book 9, Letter 12, to John, Bishop of Syracuse):

[Here are the editor's comments from NPNF:

8 This whole passage in the original is;-"Orationem vero Dominicam idcirco mox post precem dicimus, quia mos apostolorum fuit or ad ipsam solummodo orationem oblatlonis hostiam consecarent Et valde mihi inconveniens visum est ut precem quam scholasticus composuerat super oblationem diceremus, et ipsam traditionem (Qy. for orationnem?) quam Redemptor noster composuit super ejus corpus et sanguinem non diceremus."... As to what is said by S. Gregory of the custom of the Apostles, the most Obvious meaning of which is, that they used no prayer of consecratIon but the Lord's Prayer, we have no means of ascertaining whence he derived this tradition, or what the value of it might be. It does not, of course, imply that the words of institution were not said over the elements by the Apostles, but only that they used no other prayer for the purpose of consecration. Ways have been suggested, though not satisfactory, for evading the apparent meaning of the statement.]

Addendum: Father Fritz Eckardt has a discussion of the practice of the pastor alone saying the Our Father, the very custom which Gregory here witnesses to as the practice of the Roman rite. It was standard at one time in Lutheran practice.

See http://gottesblog.blogspot.com