Week 4: The Eucharistic Prayer

St. Paul writes to St. Timothy that, “First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone.” (1 Tim 2:1) The most sublime way that we Catholics do these things is by our participation in the Mass. Up until today, we’ve talked about the Mass being both a Sacred Meal and a Sacrifice to God, about the use of music to glorify God and lift the human heart to him, and finally we walked through the Mass up until the Creed is prayed.

The second portion of the Mass, which has been called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Mass of the Faithful, and a few other things, begins with the offertory. I have spoken about the offertory before, but it is important to remember that the offertory is more about preparing the sacred vessels. We should strive to offer ourselves to God, alongside the bread and wine, at Mass. This first blessing and offering of the bread and wine is, most likely, based on the original Thanksgiving Offering given in the Jerusalem temple. A few drops of water are added to the wine. Over the ages, this has become a symbol that reminds us that Christ–symbolized by the wine–takes on our humanity–symbolized by the water–and transforms us into himself. The wine is not changed–the water is changed. After all this, the priest washes his hands, which is probably rooted in ancient temple practices of ritual purity. It also reminds of the moment when Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Christ’s blood before the Crucifixion, which will soon be made present through the rituals of the Church. The offertory ends with the prayer “Pray brethren, that my Sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father. May the Lord accept the Sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and the glory of His Name, for our good and the good of all his Holy Church.” In this prayer we unify our own offerings with the sacrifice on the altar, to all be presented to God the Father.

We then prayer the “Prayer over the Offerings” or the “Secret” prayer, because it was traditionally said quietly so that only the priest heard it. This prayer asks God and the saints to assist us in offering this sacrifice so that it might be found acceptable.

After this prayer we have the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer, which is the true beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. This prayer is a prayer of praise, intended to give glory to God and to make known his greatness. These words of prayers should lift our hearts to the Lord and remind us that this worship we offer him is rightly and justly given to God. The preface concludes with the Sanctus, that great hymn of praise which declares the glory of our Thrice Holy God.

After the preface, for most of the history of the Roman Church, we have prayed the Roman Canon. The last changes to this prayer were made by St. Gregory the Great, who became pope in the year 590. This prayer then was adopted by nearly every church throughout the west within two hundred years, and it remained unchanged for well over a thousand years. While other parts of the Mass changed through the ages, this prayer did not. The biggest change made to the text in the 400 years prior to Vatican II was when Pope John XXII inserted the name of St. Joseph into the prayer.

(English only: While new prayers have been developed since Vatican II, I will limit my comments to briefly going through the Roman Canon, since this is one of the greatest gifts our Catholic tradition has given to us. Also, we don’t have all day.)

The Roman Canon begins by asking God to accept these gifts, which we are offering for the Church, all within her, for all of the people we are lifting up, and for all those we hold dear. As we pray this prayer, we remember those saints who have gone before us and ask them to assist us in offering this sacrifice to God. We finally ask God to accept this sacrifice so that we might be protected from hell and accepted into his Heavenly kingdom. Throughout this part of the prayer, the priest is mostly praying in the priestly orans position: he is praying to God the Father on behalf of the people of God.

Next, we ask God to make this a sacrifice that is worthy of him: to make this bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Immediately after this petition, the Last Supper itself breaks into Mass. The priest, in persona Christi, narrates the Last Supper and says the words of God himself: THIS IS MY BODY and THIS IS MY BLOOD. Through God’s almighty power, the bread and wine is truly changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, each of which is the fullness of Christ himself: his Body, his Blood, his Soul, his Divinity. Christ, in the words of the priest, reminds us to do this all in remembrance of him.

After this incredible miracle takes place, the prayers asks God to assist us, his people, in calling to mind what has begun to transpire before us: the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ. As we call these mysteries to mind, we offer to him the most excellent gifts that he has given to us: his own Son. We ask God to accept this sacrifice, just as he accepted the gift of Abel’s first fruits and as he accepted the offering of Abraham’s tithe through the priest Melchisedech. We ask that God send his holy angels to lift this sacrifice before him–a reminder that we are not on earth during the Mass, but truly participating in the angelic liturgies of Heaven.

After this incredible high point, we call to mind those servants of God who have gone to their rest before us and pray for their souls to have eternal peace. We ask that we may one day, through God’s mercy, take our place alongside the souls of the martyrs who have entered His kingdom. We end the prayers of the Roman Canon with the Great Doxology asking that all of these things be granted and done “Through Him and with Him and in Him” that is, all of this is done Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ in the unity with the Holy Spirit, to be offered to God the Almighty Father, for his honor and glory are through all ages. The final conclusion to this prayer is a simple, “AMEN” in which we make the prayer our own and say “So be it, I believe.”

Today, I encourage you to be especially attentive to giving yourself to God during the offertory and to participate in the wondrous moments of the Roman Canon, allowing your soul to be lifted up as God takes our meager offering and gives us something that has the power to change the world: himself.

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