The Eucharistic Prayer

Much like the Jewish berakah prayers from which they derived, our eucharistic prayers

give thanks and praise for the wonders of God. These prayers form the heart of the Mass. In fact, the word “Eucharist” is a Greek word that means thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the first action in the Eucharistic prayer, but The General Instruction of the Roman Missal tells us that there are eight key actions in which the entire assembly participates when praying the eucharistic prayer:

Thanksgiving

Acclamation

Epiclesis

Institution Narrative and Consecration

Anamnesis

Oblation

Intercessions

Concluding doxology

Thanksgiving

Several prayers in the Mass begin with the priest saying, “Let us pray,” but the words that begin the Eucharistic prayer are “The Lord be with you,” signaling that this prayer is distinct from all other prayers at Mass. Following the dialogue between the priest and the assembly, a prayer known as the preface sets forth particular motives for praising God.

For he assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh,

and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago,

and opened for us the way to eternal salvation. . .

Preface I of Advent

The coming of Christ, his ministry, his passion and death, his resurrection and ascension, all that he has done to procure our salvation are the main events named in our prefaces. The nearly 100 prefaces are tied to a particular liturgical season or feast.

Acclamation

We join with the angels to offer our praise to God by singing the Holy Holy Holy.

Epiclesis

The term epiclesis comes from the Greek kleo, which means "to call" and epi, which means "forth". The epiclesis in the eucharisic prayer is an invocation calling forth the power of the Holy Spirit to consecrate and transform the gifts of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall. . .

There is another epiclesis in several of our eucharistic prayers which invokes the power of the Holy Spirit for the unity of the Church.

Humbly we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.

We pray that the Holy Spirit will come in power to sanctify and transform the gifts of bread and wine as well as ourselves, for nothing that the Spirit touches remains the same.

Institution Narrative and Consecration

The next action is the Institution narrative and Consecration which comes to us in the form of a story. The priest, acting in the person of Christ, proclaims the words and actions of Christ at the Last Supper. The story we hear is an adaptation of the scriptural accounts of that night.

At the time he was betrayed . . . he took bread and giving thanks, broke it. . .

At this point in our liturgical prayer, we might ask: How does my story relate to this story? Connecting Christ’s dying and rising to our experience gives Christ’s story meaning for us today.

Anamnesis and The Memorial Acclamation

Anamnesis is a Greek word which means memory. We remember God's saving and liberating actions, accomplished in Christ--not as past events--but as events that continue to achieve their effects here and now. We remember how God acted in the past and ask that God act among us now. By singing the Memorial Acclamation, the assembly proclaims its participation in the Paschal Mystery.

When we eat this bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.

The Oblation

An early name for the eucharistic prayer was the anaphora, which is Greek for offering.

We offer you, Lord, the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation

Jesus offered the gift of his life in complete obedience for the sake of our redemption. Jesus continues to offer himself in love to God for all eternity. We participate in this action by offering ourselves in union with the offering of Christ.

Intercession

In the eucharistic prayer, we intercede for the church, the clergy, those who have died, and for those present:

Remember, Lord, your Church . . .Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep . . .

The Concluding Doxology

Doxology means correct praise and serves to bring the eucharistic prayer to a stirring climax. The assembly, through the priest-presider, restates the whole purpose of the eucharistic prayer, namely to offer praise and honor to the Father through Christ and in the Holy Spirit.

Through him, and with him, and in him . . .

We make this statement our own by singing an exuberant Amen, the most important acclamation of the eucharistic prayer. By our Amen, we ratify the covenant begun by God and made new in Christ Jesus.

Although it is the task of the ordained minister to lead the eucharistic prayer he does so on our behalf. As the wording of the prayers reminds us, it is we who praise, we who offer. Everyone present joins Christ in acknowledging the works of God and in offering the sacrifice.

To pray what this prayer intends demands attention to its actions in our daily lives. We must be people who give thanks to God day in and day out. We must be a community who remembers how God has been good to us in the past, and who trusts that God will sustain us here and now. We must intercede for the needs of the world around us. We must remember the death and resurrection of Christ when we experience the pain and the promise of our own living. We join our suffering and hope to Christ as we, like him, offer ourselves to others living through him, and with him and in him.