Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, dona nobis pacem.
✦Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
The Agnus Dei — "Lamb of God" — is prayed just before Holy Communion, while the priest breaks the sacred Host. Its words are those of St. John the Baptist, who, seeing Our Lord approach, pointed to Him and said: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). At the very moment the faithful prepare to receive that Lamb, the Church takes the Baptist's cry upon her own lips.
The title reaches back through the Baptist to the whole of Scripture: to the lamb of the Passover whose blood spared Israel, and to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah "led as a sheep to the slaughter." All of it is fulfilled in Christ, the true Lamb whose sacrifice, made present on the altar, takes away not merely the sins of one people but of the world.
The threefold Agnus Dei was introduced into the Roman Mass around the year 687 by Pope Sergius I. In a Mass for the Dead the petitions are changed: instead of "have mercy on us" the Church prays "grant them rest" (dona eis requiem), and the last petition asks rest everlasting for the departed soul.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi,
miserére nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi,
miserére nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi,
dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.