The Mass: “Father, we thank you.” (Part 2)
Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV are all examples of the same version of the Eucharistic Prayer, which has its origins in ancient Syria. In the last two columns, we explained how these prayers begin with praise and thanksgiving to God the Father in the preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. They continue with an invocation of the Holy Spirit to transform the gifts of bread and wine. The celebrant then proclaims the Lord’s own words at the Last Supper. The memorial acclamation, addressed to Jesus, follows immediately. In this column, we will look at the common literary structure of Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV following the memorial acclamation.
Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV are all examples of the same version of the Eucharistic Prayer, which has its origins in ancient Syria. In the last two columns, we explained how these prayers begin with praise and thanksgiving to God the Father in the preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. They continue with an invocation of the Holy Spirit to transform the gifts of bread and wine. The celebrant then proclaims the Lord’s own words at the Last Supper. The memorial acclamation, addressed to Jesus, follows immediately. In this column, we will look at the common literary structure of Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV following the memorial acclamation.
After the memorial acclamation, the priest alone returns to addressing God the Father and professes before the Father the same saving events all of us just proclaimed in song to Jesus. Those events are now present to us who were not there when they happened. Moreover, the saving impact of the entire paschal mystery becomes present to us now, thanks to God’s grace. And so, the priest calls the Eucharist we celebrate the “memorial of [Jesus’s] Death and Resurrection” (Eucharistic Prayer II) and the memorial of His “saving Passion . . . [and of His] wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven” (Eucharistic Prayer III). The priest then explicitly says that he offers to God the Father the bread that has become the body of Christ and the wine that has become the blood of Christ. Jesus’s offering of His own body and blood on the cross, which He foretold at the Last Supper, continues in our time and place by the Church’s offering of His eucharistic body and blood. Christ’s one sacrifice of His life to the Father is not repeated or replaced by what we do at Mass. But instead, it continues through time from His Passion on the cross into the present until the end of the ages whenever we carry out the Lord’s command to “do this in memory of me.”
After recalling Christ’s offering of His body and blood and after joining Him in making that offering to the Father, these eucharistic prayers include several intercessions which the priest prays on our behalf. First, the priest asks God the Father to send the Holy Spirit on the Church to accomplish among us the unity that the Eucharist signifies and that it is meant to strengthen. Our communion with Christ is meant to lead us to become ever more “one body, one spirit in Christ” (Eucharistic Prayer III) through the power of the Holy Spirit. The priest then asks for God’s blessing upon the Church throughout the world, especially its leaders. That is why the pope and the bishop are mentioned in every Eucharistic Prayer. Then the priest prays for the salvation of “the whole world” (Eucharistic Prayer IV), for our own eternal salvation, and for the entry to heaven of “our departed brothers and sisters” (Eucharistic Prayer III), and even for those who are not Christians but who nonetheless died “in [God’s] mercy” (Eucharistic Prayer IV) and whose faith is known only to God. To help us intercede before God the Father, the priest invokes the prayers of Mary, the Mother of God, of St. Joseph, and of all the saints. Along with the angels adoring God in heaven, who sing with us the Holy, Holy at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, the saints in heaven also join us, here and now, in our prayer before the Father by our communion with them in faith and charity.
All the eucharistic prayers conclude with the same expression of praise to God called the doxology. That doxology is addressed to God the Father like the entire Eucharistic Prayer itself. It makes clear that our prayer can only be offered through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, our one and only true mediator between us and the Father. It glorifies the Holy Spirit, whose presence unites us with each other and with the Father and the Son. The assembly responds “Amen” to indicate that it believes and makes its own everything the priest prayed on its behalf and that it has joined the priest in praying for the same intentions to God the Father.
Because the Eucharistic Prayer, whichever one is chosen by the celebrant, is longer than any of the other prayers of Mass, we can become distracted and not always pay close attention to what the priest is saying. The whole Church, priest and people together, is meant to offer that prayer to God the Father with Jesus in the Holy Spirit. What the priest speaks on our behalf, we are meant to pray with attentive mind and willing heart even if our participation does not always include words.
In the next column, we will examine the various parts to Eucharistic Prayer I, which follow a different logic and a different pattern than Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV. Because of its unique structure and unusual vocabulary, Eucharistic Prayer I demands even greater attention on our part in order for us to participate fully and consciously in the ministry of the celebrant.
