Why do Catholics say some phrases 3 times at Mass?

Why do Catholics say some phrases three times at Mass? These repetitions are made in each Eucharist with expressions such as “because of me”, “Lamb of God” or “Holy, Holy, Holy”. Here is a detailed explanation that will help you know and value the Holy Eucharist a little more.

Biblical foundation

Fray Nelson Medina, Dominican priest and Doctor in Fundamental Theology known for his vast apostolate on social networks, explains to ACI Prensa that “the number 3 appears several times in the Bible associated with a process that is completed and that is why it makes a lot of sense that , also in the liturgy, some actions are used three times.”

“It’s like a way of saying a complete, perfect action. “It is the general meaning of that number 3, which is so typical of the Bible and definitely of the liturgy,” he adds.

Brother Nelson gives as an example Deuteronomy 16, 16, where “it is indicated that three times a year all the men of Israel had to appear before the Lord as a way of ratifying the alliance” or “the first of Samuel 20, 41, where we find the farewell between David and his friend Jonathan, who was the son of King Saul. And when David has to separate from his friend, he prostrates himself three times as if praying, as if asking the Lord for that strength that he needs.

“In 1 Kings 17, 21, the prophet Elijah performs a miracle, which is the resurrection of a boy who had died. What Elías does is cover the boy’s body with his body and he also does this action three times,” continues the Doctor in Fundamental Theology.

“In 1 Chronicles 12, 18 we find that, when the alliance of the people with David is ratified, the people exclaim to him three times ‘We wish peace to you and to anyone who helps you!’” and in “Daniel 6, 10 we find “Daniel had the habit of praying three times a day.”

Highlighting then an example from the Gospel, Friar Nelson highlights that “Jesus tells Peter that he is going to deny him three times, as it appears in Matthew 26, 34 or in Mark 14, 30” and then it can be seen that “when Peter ratifies his love and alliance with Christ, in John 21, he also three times says to Christ: ‘You know that I love you.'”

A contribution from the Eucharistic Revival

Father Luke Spannagel explains why Catholics say “because of me” three times, in the prayer known as the “sinful self,” in the website in Spanish from the National Eucharistic Revival of the United States.

“Throughout the Bible, beating the chest is a gesture of humility and sorrow for sins. Why three times? As Edward Sri indicates, the triple repetition of guilt ‘expresses more fully the sorrow for our sins.’ (…) This line of the liturgy helps us recognize that sinning against God is not a light matter,” highlights the priest.

Why an odd number?

In your book The reason for all the ceremonies of the Church and its mysteriesthe Spanish priest Antonio Lorera y Abio, explains that in the liturgy “the odd number includes concord and union, the even number disunity and discord; the pair can be split; if it means the unity of Essence that exists in the three Divine Persons. If there are three, they symbolize the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the first the Father, the second the Son, the third the Holy Spirit.

The priest then refers, in the 18th century text, that in the Mass the Lamb of God or Agnus Dei is said three times so that God frees us “from present, past and future evils, and so that he forgives us the sins committed.” by thought, word and deed, with which we reach the eternal peace of the heavenly homeland.

The reference to the Holy Trinity

At the end of July 2022, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York (United States), in a brief explanation of the importance of the number 3, highlighted that Catholics say several phrases three times at Mass to remember the Holy Trinity. , One and Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.