The second year of the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival is in full swing, and the National Eucharistic Congress is to take place July 17 through July 21 in Indianapolis. While thousands will attend the event, far more of us will not be able to be there in person. Still, we can participate in the revival by growing in knowledge and devotion to this most important sacramental liturgy for the life of the church in its members.
One such opportunity for deeper participation is through a better understanding of the Eucharistic prayer. This “prayer of thanksgiving and sanctification” begins with the priest inviting the people to lift up their hearts; then, several minutes later, they respond “Amen” to his concluding glorification of the Father through the Son with the Holy Spirit. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal identifies the Eucharistic prayer as “the center and summit of the entire celebration.” Yet, over decades of teaching and pastoral conversations, I have found not a few Catholics confused about exactly what the title “Eucharistic Prayer” refers to. Still others say they “blank out” during the priest’s recitation of each lengthy part—the exception being the pivotal institution narrative, recounting the Lord’s words at the Last Supper, with dramatic elevations of the host and chalice. Here, surely, is an opportunity for deepening understanding!
Our earliest known church instruction, the late-first-century Didache, calls the communal meal ritual eucharistia, a Greek noun meaning gratitude, as it introduces how thanksgiving (Greek verb, eucharisto) is to be made. In the mid-second century, Justin Martyr named the elements of bread and wine the Eucharist, over which thanks are given. Like all the sacraments of the church, then, the Eucharist is fundamentally an action—in this case, a four-part action of taking, blessing, breaking and sharing. The blessing (drawing from the first believers’ Jewish tradition) is a prayer addressed to God in praise and thanks for what God has done in and for creation, humanity and especially the people of God, the church, in Christ Jesus. For this reason, the original and continuing Greek name for the prayer is the Anaphora, a lifting up or offering, such that from earliest sources it begins with the presider (bishop, priest) inviting the people to “lift up your hearts.”
To this day in the Eastern churches, Anaphora remains the title for the long prayer of praise, thanks and intercession, of which a plethora of Syrian, Egyptian and Byzantine versions comprise the heritage. In the Latin West, on the other hand, the Latin term canon actionis was first applied to the prayer in an eighth-century sacramentary, meaning the rule (canon) for carrying out this action. Over the ensuing medieval decades, the first word alone became the name for the singular Eucharistic Prayer in the Roman Missal (the ritual and instructions for the Mass). Right through to the missal’s 1962 edition, the prayer was called the Roman Canon.
Today’s regular participant in the Roman Catholic Mass, however, most likely is aware that the priest may be reading from any one of several Eucharistic prayers. The Second Vatican Council mandated a restoration of the church’s liturgical rites, revising them “carefully in light of sound tradition.” For the Roman Missal, this meant realizing a goal that Pope Pius V had set for the post-Tridentine reform in the 16th century but was hindered by limited linguistic knowledge and meager access to pre-medieval sources. Scholarship from the mid-19th century forward, in what became known as the Liturgical Movement, unfolded a wealth of Eucharistic prayers dating through the eighth century, mostly Eastern but some Western, that had been unstudied or even unknown.
Rather than attempt a comprehensive revision of the Roman Canon, the decision was made that the Congregation of Rites would, in addition to a slightly modified Roman Canon, create three other Eucharistic prayers based on the full range of the ancient church’s tradition. Pope Paul VI approved the four in issuing the revised Roman Missal in 1969. Six years later, the second edition of the missal added two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation, as well as three for Masses with Children. In 2002, Pope John Paul II issued the missal’s third (and current) edition, with an additional four Eucharistic Prayers for Use in Masses for Various Needs.
The missal’s General Instruction delineates eight “chief elements making up the Eucharistic Prayer”: thanksgiving (notably, the function of the preface), acclamation (Sanctus,or “Holy, Holy”), epiclesis (invoking the Holy Spirit’s power), institution narrative and consecration (based on Christ’s words and actions at the Last Supper), anamnesis (remembrance of Christ’s death, resurrection and future coming), offering (of the sacrificial Christ and the assembled people, in the Holy Spirit, for greater unity with God and one another), intercessions (for the living and dead) and the final doxology (glorification of God, with the people’s “Amen”). Those elements, in that order, aptly outline Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV, as well as those for Reconciliation and Various Needs.
Eucharistic Prayer I, the Roman Canon, is markedly different in order and content, expressing immediately after the Sanctus words of offering and petition for the church in its leaders and particular members. The canon lacks any invocation of the Holy Spirit’s power, while naming there and at the end numerous early-period saints. The prayer includes the priest’s performance of numerous hand gestures and signs of the cross, as well as special insertions for various solemnities (the most extensive being for Easter). The Roman Canon always began with a variable preface, expressing particular reasons for divine praise and thanks; the current missal has over 80, suited to solemnities, seasons and specific occasions. Eucharistic Prayer I, quite lengthy, may be used anytime, with the General Instruction recommending its use for particular solemnities and memorials, as well as the celebrations of the ancient saints the canon explicitly mentions. Priests with strong affection for the pre-Vatican-II Mass and related customs often choose this Eucharistic prayer.
The three other main Eucharistic prayers draw from the rich heritage of ancient Eastern Christianity. Among them, Eucharist Prayer IV is the fullest in composition and most comprehensive in theological content. It is based on the Anaphora of St. Basil of Caesarea, arguably the most mature of the ancient Eastern texts, drawing upon both the Alexandrian (Egyptian) and Antiochene (Syrian) prayer forms. Indeed, its sequential elements are exactly those the General Instruction uses to describe the Eucharistic prayer (see above). The entire sweep of the prayer is nothing less than a thankful ode to God for the history of salvation, from creation of the cosmos, and then humanity, through the lineage of the biblical covenants, arriving at the definitive new covenant in Christ Jesus, describing the merciful characteristics of Jesus’ mission.
The prayer thereby draws the people into identification with the biblical content celebrated in the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word. Following Basil’s ancient Alexandrian roots, the prayer invokes the power of the Holy Spirit on each side of the remembrance of the Lord’s Supper, his death, descent to the dead, resurrection, ascension and anticipated return. The Spirit is invoked first for the transformation of the offered bread and wine and then upon the assembly themselves, united together as one body, “a living sacrifice in Christ.” Intercessions follow, radiating out from the leadership to the full membership of the church, further to all people of sincere faith, both living and dead, before returning in conclusion to the whole of creation, envisioned with the saints in final transformation. The General Instruction recommends this Eucharistic prayer, majestic and lengthy, for solemn occasions but also for Sundays throughout Ordinary Time. Generally, however, American priests do not tend to use it nearly as often as Eucharistic Prayers II and III.
Eucharistic Prayer III, while based on the ancient Antiochene tradition, is a completely original composition. Like the other two newer Eucharistic prayers, it follows the pattern and eight elements described in the General Instruction (see above). Unlike Eucharistic Prayer IV, it does not have a fixed preface, which leaves it available for use during the special seasons of the year (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter), for which the missal provides numerous prefaces. The General Instruction notes this prayer’s suitability for Sundays, and many priests regularly follow that recommendation.
To my observation, American priests likewise make great use of Eucharistic Prayer II, including often on Sundays, despite the General Instruction describing it rather as suitable for weekdays and specific occasions (although the more recent Eucharistic Prayers for Various Needs now meet that purpose). The shortest of the four in length, Eucharistic Prayer II is based on the one found in the Apostolic Tradition, a text attributed to Hippolytus of Rome dating from the third century (the final version being possibly as late as the fifth). Insofar as Hippolytus’s text lacks intercessions and other elements, Eucharistic Prayer II adapts it to meet the full complement of parts found in the Eucharistic Prayers III and IV. It does so, however, in a tight economy of words. Its anamnesis, for example, recalls only Christ’s death and resurrection, in contrast to Eucharistic Prayer IV’s rehearsal of all the events included in his death and glorification. While it has its own preface, extolling Christ’s saving mission, Eucharistic Prayer II may be used with any preface.
The two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation are recommended, among other occasions, for use during the season of Lent. The second of the two quite beautifully rehearses the history of salvation, the mission of Christ, the offering and ensuing intercessions in terms of the wounds of sin and division, and the Spirit’s empowerment of peace and unity. Its conclusion paraphrases moving passages from the Book of Revelation as it anticipates God’s gathering people “of every race and tongue” into “the unending banquet of unity in a new heaven and a new earth.” The imagery speaks profoundly to our current era of divisiveness in society and even the church.
Following the congress in Indianapolis, the final year of the Eucharistic Revival, as indicated on its website, is for “Going Out on Mission.” The Eucharistic prayer reveals the divine imperative and empowerment that this central sacramental celebration of the church provides for our entire Christian lives to be “a living sacrifice in Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer IV). As the Letter to the Romans exhorts: “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (12:1-2). Attentive, prayerful engagement in the Eucharistic prayer at Mass is crucial to the celebration—being, as Vatican II teaches, not only the summit of the church’s life but also the source for lives of loving service to mercy and justice, for the life of the world.
