Epiclesis in the Sacrament of Penance

[bekside]

Which part of the Rite of Penance constitutes the epiclesis? Can't find explicit reference to this in the Praenotanda.

Two possibilities occurred to me -

1. the epiclesis is implicit in the nature of the minister being an ordained priest - when Christ instituted the sacrament, according to the account in St John, He said to the apostles "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" - maybe this invocation of the Holy Spirit has an ongoing affect through apostolic succession or something?

2. as part of the formula for absolution the priest says "I absolve you from your sins IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT" - maybe this is the only invocation?

Aaargh! I'm confused!

[Cluny]

I've only heard the Epiclesis being the calling down of the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

I've never heard of it used in connection with the Mystery of Penance.

Can you be a bit more specific here about where you heard this?

[NHInsider]

There is an ancient East/West controversy over whether the explicit words of epiclesis are essential to the transubstantiation of the elements of the Eucharist. The position of the Western church is that the church invokes the Holy Spirit by the whole act of the sacrament, whether or not there is an explicit invocation. (Whether the reintroduction of the explicit epiclesis in 1969 was an outreached hand to the East is an interesting discussion).

As the effectiveness of any sacrament is the work of the Spirit, by extension there is an epiclesis in any valid sacrament, but it need not be tied to an explicit statement/gesture. So I think your conclusion in point 1 is correct but not limited to Reconciliation - the Lord gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles for the purpose of providing effective, grace-filled sacraments to His people for all time.

I have also read that the epiclesis is explicit in Reconciliation by the gesture of raising the hands over the penitent - this gesture (also used in baptism and confirmation, matrimony and holy orders, and the sacrament of the sick) is the same as the holding of the hands over the elements at the epiclesis and is in deed an invocation of the Spirit. I don't know that there is an "official" position on this but I'm by no means an expert in rubrics.

Hope that helps?

[Cluny]

The Words of Institution and the Epiclesis are two parts of the same prayer.

It's like arguing about which is the "essential clause" of the Lord's Prayer.

A priest would act illicitly (if not worse) by merely saying the Words of Institution or the Epiclesis by themselves.