In Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI's recent apostolic letter on the Eucharist, the Pontiff offers much food for thought and spiritual nourishment. One thing he insists upon is that Catholics should come to understand and love better the Eucharistic prayer of Mass.
"The spiritual life of the faithful can greatly benefit from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora [another term for the Eucharistic prayer]," writes the Pope. "Its importance deserves to be adequately emphasized."
Because they hear this prayer every time they attend Mass, Catholics might easily take it for granted or even ignore it. But the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the Church's official instruction manual for the celebration of the Eucharist, calls the Eucharistic prayer "the center and summit of the entire celebration."
So what is the Eucharistic prayer? And why does the Pope believe that all Catholics need to understand it better?
The Church's Prayer
The Eucharistic prayer is prayed from the altar by the priest celebrating Mass. It begins immediately after the prayer over the gifts, with a familiar dialogue between priest and people ("The Lord be with you." "And also with you." "Lift up your hearts." "We lift them up to the Lord.").
It concludes with the doxology ("Through him, with him, and in him…") and the "Great Amen" of the people. In between are the preface, Sanctus, prayers of thanksgiving, an epiclesis, the consecration, a prayer of offering, and prayers of intercession. (See below.)
The entire prayer has crucial significance to the worship, spirituality, and identity of every Catholic. The Eucharistic prayer, though prayed aloud almost entirely by the priest alone, is truly the prayer of the whole Church — meaning Christ and his body of which all the faithful are members.
That's why the entire congregation joins into the three acclamations — the Sanctus, memorial acclamation, and "Great Amen" at its conclusion. It is also why the words the priest prays are addressed neither to the people nor to Jesus, but to God the Father. In the Eucharistic prayer, the Church prays and offers itself to the Father with Christ and in Christ.
"Christ is presented once more to the Father, together with the prayers which we as Church offer alongside his infinite sacrifice," Father Edward McNamara, LC, professor of liturgy at Rome's Regina Apostolorum University, told OSV recently.
"In doing this we renew the covenant sealed in his blood and continue to establish the community of those who form God's people through participation in this sacrifice."
With this understanding of the Eucharistic prayer, the real meaning of participation at Mass, so strongly emphasized in recent years, becomes clearer. To participate at Mass is never simply to pay attention, to sing and respond, or to make a financial offering. Rather, true participation at Mass means offering ourselves with Jesus to the Father.
Hence the Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, could speak of the participation of the lay faithful at Mass in this way:
[B]y offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all (section 48).
"Someone who enters deeply into the spirituality of the Eucharistic prayer is learning to pray as the Church prays," Fr. McNamara said. "The prayer contains almost every form of Christian prayer: praise, thanksgiving, confession of faith, petition for the needs of ourselves and others.
"It also encapsulates the fundamentals of our loving relationship with God — creation, redemption, covenant — which in turn inculcate the essential attitudes of a Christian life, humility and charity."
A Rich History
Priests have the option of using four main Eucharistic prayers when they celebrate Mass. In the Sacramentary, the book of prayers used at Mass, they are numbered I, II, III, and IV.
Besides these, there are also two special Eucharistic prayers on the theme of Reconciliation, three more intended to be used in Masses for children, and four others "for various needs and occasions." But such variety has not always been the case.
Of course, the first Eucharist was offered by Jesus at the Last Supper, on the night before his crucifixion. As a Passover meal, that Eucharist included important prayers to be prayed and meanings to be conveyed. So the Eucharistic prayer has roots that go back many centuries before even Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave the words new meaning and a central place in the life of the Christian Church forever.
In the first centuries of the Church, there was no official "script" that had to be recited by priests who celebrated Mass. The Eucharistic prayer was prayed spontaneously, though certain themes and words were always expected to be included.
Our first record of a written Eucharistic prayer is one composed by St. Hippolytus around 215 AD. But Hippolytus introduces his prayer by acknowledging that priests in his day ad libbed their own; his concern was that they did so according to the tradition form, rather than aberrations that apparently had begun to appear.
This same concern for avoiding what was not traditional led to a written Eucharistic prayer which the priest was required to read verbatim, as is the case today. Though a variety of prayers were used in various places at first, one prayer was preferred above all others by the fifth century.
Known as the Roman Canon, this Eucharistic prayer soon became normative throughout the entire Church. For more than 1500 years, it was the only Eucharistic prayer used throughout the world, right up until the Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
"[The Roman Canon's] stability and sacredness in a way marked the lives of generations of priests, allowing them to feel in a special way the entrance into the communion of saints," Fr. McNamara said.
"It also gave a certain stability to society. It was something constant and recognizable. Even if the laity did not hear or understand the prayer, they knew they were before the great mystery of faith."
Changes after Vatican II
The Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy did not call for new Eucharistic prayers or even a revision of the Roman Canon. But as the work of liturgical renewal progressed following the Council, this became one of the topics under consideration by the Consilium, the Vatican committee entrusted with the task of reform.
Though initially hesitant, Pope Paul VI gave the Consilium permission in 1966 to compose new Eucharistic prayers to be considered for use. (In truth, dozens of unauthorized new prayers were already being illicitly used in many countries throughout the world, particularly in Holland, France, and the United States.)
One new prayer that the Consilium presented to the Pope was a revision of Hippolytus' ancient Eucharistic prayer. In the new Missal, it became Eucharistic Prayer II. It is the shortest and simplest of the four main prayers in use, and certainly the one most often heard at Catholic Masses today.
Two other new prayers drew on different aspects of the Church's liturgical history.
Eucharistic Prayer III is the most modern composition, though it draws on several elements of Eastern rite liturgy. Since it can be used with any of dozens of different prefaces, it is well suited for the various Sundays and feast days of the year.
Eucharistic Prayer IV draws even more strongly on Eastern traditions. This is especially evident in the prayer's beautiful summary of salvation history. This is the longest prayer of the four, and probably the one least often heard in parishes today.
The Roman Canon was retained almost exactly as it had been and, like the others, could now be prayed in the vernacular. Among its many noteworthy aspects, its invocation of the prayers of many saints is particularly distinctive. It became known as Eucharistic Prayer I.
"The different Eucharistic Prayers contained in the Missal have been handed down to us by the Church's living Tradition and are noteworthy for their inexhaustible theological and spiritual richness," the Pope wrote in Sacramentum Caritatis.
It should be no wonder, then, that he insists, "The faithful need to be enabled to appreciate that richness."
The Parts of the Eucharistic Prayer
Though the Eucharistic prayers used at Mass today are different in many ways, they all share eight basic parts in common.
THANKSGIVING: The Church offers praise and thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving is so important to Christian worship that it became known by that name very early: the Greek word for thanksgiving is eucharistia.
ACCLAMATION: Joining into the song of the angels themselves before the throne of God (see Isaiah 6:2 and Revelation 4:8), the people sing, "Holy, holy, holy Lord!…"
EPICLESIS: The priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit, so that the bread and wine may become the Body and Blood of Christ.
INSTITUTION NARRATIVE: The priest repeats the words of Jesus ("This is my body…. This is my blood"), and the consecration of the gifts takes place.
ANAMNESIS: The Church recalls the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus for our salvation.
OFFERING: The faithful offer Jesus, as well as themselves, to the Father in heaven.
INTERCESSIONS: The Church asks for the prayers of the saints and prays for the dead who are in need of prayers.
FINAL DOXOLOGY: The Church glorifies the Holy Trinity, concluding with the great "Amen!" of all the people.
