Agnus Dei

As the congregation chants the Agnus Dei, the celebrant speaks it once in a low voice striking his breast three times. Then he kneels and whispers the Prayer of Humble Access while the congregation is still chanting the Agnus Dei. He then rises and whispers “the Body and Blood of Christ strengthen and preserve me body and soul unto life everlasting.” To commune himself, he carefully and gingerly breaks the celebrant's host over the paten, and places one half atop the other. He then breaks it again, into quarters, placing two quarter parts atop the other two. He genuflects before partaking in each kind, and then waits reverently until he has consumed them.