'In the pontifical likewise as well as in the Missal': a 1796 Prayer Book commentary on the normative form of absolution in the Latin tradition

Having considered how precatory forms of absolution were normative in the Christian East, John Shepherd, in his reflections on the Prayer Book's absolutions, in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796), then highlights the normative form of absolution in the liturgical texts of the Latin tradition:

It were an act of injustice, not to observe, that in the annual course of the offices of the Romish church, a considerable variety of absolutions are found, all running in the precatory form. Of their general tenor, a judgment may be formed from the following specimens, which in the Breviary frequently occur. I. "May Almighty God have mercy upon you, pardon your offences, and bring you to everlasting life." 2. "May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon, absolution, and the remission of our sins. 3. "O Lord Jesus Christ, hear the prayers of thy servants, and do thou who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, have mercy upon us". 4. "May the Almighty and merciful God loose us from the chain of our sins."

It is a significant point. For Roman Catholic Christians the normative absolution they heard most regularly was not the indicative form given in the confessional but, rather, the precatory forms heard liturgically. This, of course, remains the case today. Shepherd summarises this in a footnote:

The absolution in the pontificale likewise as well as in the Missal, is precatory. The positive indicative form is found only in the Ritual, and there but once.

The precatory form of absolution normatively heard and received in the Latin tradition can hardly, one would think, be regarded as inferior, defective, or inadequate when it was and is how Roman Catholic Christians most regularly and routinely hear God's forgiveness liturgically proclaimed. These are not empty prayers; they are not, when heard in faith, without effect; they are not offered by the priest without trust that God's grace faithfully responds. They are, in other words, no less efficacious than the indicative form of the absolution in the confessional. And it is on this basis that they demonstrate the efficacy of the precatory forms of absolution in the Book of Common Prayer.

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