Deo gratias
Deo gratias is Latin for "thanks be to God". It is a response
in the Latin Mass, derived from the Vulgate text of 1 Corinthians 15:57 and 2 Corinthians 2:14.
It occurs in the Mass
as an an answer of the server to the Epistle or Prophecies; in High Mass this answer should not be sung by the choir. In the Mozarabic and Gallican Rite the Deo Gratias follows the title of the Epistle or the Prophecy; at its end the Amen is said. The Orthodox churches do not use this formula in connection with the Epistle. In the Latin Church the Deo Gratias is not said on Ember Saturday after the fifth lesson, which is followed by the canticle of the Three Young Men in the furnace, in order not to interrupt the sense; neither is it said after the lessons on Good Friday or after the Prophecies on Holy Saturday and the eve of Pentecost;
in answer to the Ite Missa est and the Benedicamus Domino, in thanksgiving for the graces received at Mass;
after the second Gospel, while after the first Gospel the server answers Laus tibi Christe. Quarti explained this by saying that the first Gospel signifies the preaching of Christ, while the second Gospels signifies the preaching of the Apostles, while Holweck (1908) holds such an interpretation to be "artificial and arbitrary";
