oremus
(Latin: let us pray)
An invitation to pray occurring continually in Roman Rite especially before Collects, Office, Offertory, Pater Noster, and Post-Communion in the Mass, and Collects in the Office. It emphasizes the part the people have with the priest in public worship.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Oremus
Invitation to pray, said before collects and other short prayers and occurring continually in the Roman Rite. It is used as a single ejaculation in the East (e.g., Nestorian Rite, Brightman, “Eastern Liturgies”, Oxford, 1896, 255, etc.; Jacobite, ib., 75, 80, etc.), or the imperative: “Pray” (Coptic, ib., 162), “Stand for prayer” (ib., 158); most commonly, however with a further determination, “Let us pray to the Lord” (tou kyriou denthomen, throughout the Byzantine Rite), and so on. Msgr. Duchesne thinks that the Gallican collects were also introduced by the word “Oremus” (“Origines du Culte”, Paris, 1898, 103). It is not so in the Mozarabic Rite, where the celebrant uses the word only twice, before the Agios (P.L. LXXXV, 113) and Pater Noster (ib., 118). Oremus is said (or sung) in the Roman Rite before all separate collects in the Mass, Office, or on other occasions (but several collects may be joined with one Oremus), before Post-Communions; in the same way, alone, with no prayer following, before the offertory; also before the introduction to the Pater noster and before other short prayers (e.g., Aufer a nobis) in the form of collects. It appears that the Oremus did not originally apply to the prayer (collect) that now follows it. It is thought that it was once an invitation to private prayer, very likely with further direction as to the object, as now on Good Friday (Oremus pro ecclesia sancta Dei, etc.). The deacon then said: Flectamus genua, and all knelt in silent prayer. After a time the people were told to stand up (Levate), and finally the celebrant collected all the petitions in one short sentence said aloud (see COLLECT). Of all this our Oremus followed at once by the collect would be a fragment.
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ADRIAN FORTESCUE Transcribed by Tony de Melo
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Oremus
(Let us pray) is an exclamation mused in the early Christian Church to invite the different classes of praying ones to worship. It was usually followed by Flectamus genua, and at the conclusion of the praver was heard the exclamation Levate from the mouth of the deacons. See Siegel, Christliche Alterthume, 3:241, 242.