Eucharistic prayer

The Anaphora is the most solemn part of the Divine Liturgy, or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a thanksgiving prayer by virtue of which the offerings of bread and wine are believed to be consecrated as the body and blood of Christ. This is the usual name for this part of the Liturgy in Greek-speaking Eastern Christianity. In the Eastern Syriac tradition ''Qudaša'' is its equivalent. The corresponding part in western Christian liturgy is nowadays most often called the Eucharistic Prayer. The Roman Rite from the 4th century until after Vatican II had a single such prayer, called the Canon of the Mass.

"Anaphora" is a Greek word () meaning a "carrying up" (as distinguished from the use of the same word, then meaning a "carrying back", in rhetoric and linguistics), and so an "offering" (hence its use in reference to the offering of sacrifice to God). In the sacrificial language of the Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, (prospherein) is used of the offerer's bringing the victim ''to'' the altar, and (anapherein) is used of the priest's offering ''up'' the selected portion upon the altar (see, for instance, , , , ).

Elements

To describe the structure of the Anaphoras as it became standardized from the 4th century, we can look at the structure of the anaphoras in the Antiochene family of liturgies (West Syriac Rite and Byzantine Rite) which display an order and logic that finds no equal elsewhere. This structure is still valid, with some significant variations typical of each rite, for the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Church, while it was modified, both in the pattern and in the underlying theology, during the Protestant Reformation. Beginning with the Oxford Movement of the 1840s and after the Liturgical Reform Movement of the 1950s, a systematic examination of historic anaphoras began and this in turn has caused the reform of many Eucharistic prayers within mainline Protestant denominations.

The structure of the standardized 4th century Antiochene anaphora, which is placed after the offertory and the Creed and comes before the Lord's Prayer, the Elevation and the Communion rites, can be summarized as follows:
* Sursum Corda or ''Opening Dialogue'': it is the introductory dialogue that opens with a liturgical greeting by the priest (for instance, "The Lord be with you" in the Roman Rite, or "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" in the Byzantine Rite) and the response of the congregation or choir. Classic call and response ties together the response of the priest and congregation to the Glory of God. Then the priest exhorts those participating in the liturgy to lift up their hearts. When they express their agreement ("We lift them up to the Lord"), he then introduces the great theme of thanksgiving, in Greek (''eucharistia''), saying: "Let us ''give thanks'' to the Lord our God.";
* Preface: is the great prayer of thanksgiving for the work of Salvation or for some special aspect of it;
*Sanctus: is a hymn of praise adapted from beginning ''Holy, Holy, Holy'' immediately followed by the ''Benedictus'' taken from . This hymn is usually introduced by the expression of the desire of the community to unite itself with the heavenly Angelic liturgy; it also follows the words of Christ, taken from Mt 23:39: "For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord", itself being a quotation of Psalm 118:26.
*''Post-Sanctus'': is a prayer that links the Sanctus with the following part. It can be very short or resume the great theme of thanksgiving, giving ground for the following requests.
*''Institution narrative'': is an account of the Last Supper, in which are pronounced the Words of Institution spoken by Jesus Christ, changing the bread and wine into his Body and Blood.
* Anamnesis: is the statement in which the Church refers to the memorial character of the Eucharist itself and/or to the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.
*Oblation: is the offering to the Lord of the sacrifice of the Eucharistic bread and wine and of the prayers and thanksgiving of faithfuls.
*Epiclesis: is the "invocation" or "calling down from on high" by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit (or the power of His blessing or Christ in some early texts) upon the Eucharistic bread and wine;
*Intercessions: is the prayer, sometimes long, in which the Church asks God to help all her members, living and dead, and all the humanity because of the grace given by the Eucharist. In this section there is usually the request to God to grant to the believers the same glory given to Mary and to the saints. The list of the living people who are commemorated (diptychs) includes generally the name of the current pope, patriarch, bishop recognized by the community;
*Doxology: is a solemn hymn of praises to the Trinity.

This structure can have variations in liturgical families different from the Antiochene one: in the East Syriac Rites the Epiclesis is just before the final doxology and in Addai and Mari the Institution narrative is missing; the Intercessions can be found after the Preface in the Alexandrian Rite and even before the Sursum Corda in the Mozarabic Rite. An Epiclesis can be found before the Institution narrative in the Alexandrian Rite, and this place of the Epiclesis is the standard in the Roman Canon and in the Latin rites.

The anaphoras are addressed by the Church to the Father, even if in antiquity there were cases of Eucharistic prayers addressed to Christ, as the anaphora of Gregory Nazianzen or partially the Third Anaphora of St. Peter (''Sharar''). Also, the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church unusually has an Anaphora of the Virgin Mary. Most parts of the anaphora, as the Preface, the Institution narrative, the Epiclesis, are always reserved to the celebrant, a bishop or a priest, while the faithfuls usually sung the Sanctus and some acclamations, which can be more or less frequent and length according to the specific rite. Sometime, particularly in the past, in both East and West the main celebrant said a part of his prayers inaudibly or covered by the choir.

The Eastern Rites know many anaphoras, but each of them is almost completely invariable. On the contrary the Western Church had for centuries only one anaphora, the Roman Canon, but it has variable parts according to the liturgical year, mainly the Preface. In other Latin rites, as in the Mozarabic Rite or the Gallican rite also the post-sanctus and the prayer after the Institution narrative till the doxology are completely variable.

Early texts

Many ancient texts of anaphorae have survived, and even if no more in use, they are useful to trace the history of the anaphorae, and in general the history of the Eucharist during the centuries. Most of these texts became parts of anaphorae still in use.

The earlier liturgical texts related to the celebration of the Eucharist are the chapters 9 and 10 of the Didache, even though there is no consensus among scholars if these texts are meant to be a Eucharist or not. We have next the Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition, called also the anaphora of Hippolytus, the Liturgy of the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions and the Liturgy of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions that developed in the famous Byzantine Anaphora now part of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, through the lost Greek version of the Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles (of which we have a later Syrian version).

The more ancient text of the Basilean family of anaphoras was found in 1960 in a Sahidic Coptic version, possibly a text written by St. Basil himself, and recent scholars believes that this text, united with the anaphora described in ''The Catechisms'' of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, has been the base for the Anaphora of St. James included in the Liturgy of St James. The present Byzantine text of the Anaphora included in the Liturgy of Saint Basil is the final development of this anaphoric family.

In the East the more ancient text is probably the ancient form of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, followed by the East Syriac Rite
Churches. The third Anaphora (Anaphora of Nestorius) is also in use. Another important source is the anaphora described in the ''Mystagogical Cathecheses'' of Theodore of Mopsuestia.

In Egypt we have the Anaphora of Barcellona (and its related Louvain Coptic Papyrus), the Prayer into the Euchologion of Serapion, the Deir Balyzeh Papyrus, the Strasbourg papyrus and the ancient Anaphora of Saint Mark in Greek, which developed in the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril.

Scholars find structural similarities in between the Roman and Egyptian anaphoral traditions: for instance the Barcelona Papyrus, as well as Deir Balyzeh Papyrus, include an epiclesis before the Words of Institution as in the Roman Canon. The earliest text similar to the Roman Canon is the quoted in ''De Sacramentis'' of Ambrose which include prayers close to the Canon's prayers such as ''Quam Oblationem'', ''Qui pridie'', ''Unde et Memores'', ''Supra quae - Suplices te''. The Roman Canon's prayers ''Communicantes'', ''Hanc igitur'', and the post-consecration ''Memento etiam'' and ''Nobis quoque'' were added in the 5th century, and it achieved practically its present form when modified by Gregory the Great (590-604) (see History of the Roman Canon).

Eucharistic Prayer in Western Christianity

When referring to the Western Christian uses, the term ''"Eucharistic Prayer"'' is more used than ''"anaphora"'', and sometime it refers only to the portion of the anaphora starting after the Sanctus because the Preface in the Latin rites is variable and follows the liturgical year.

Roman Rite of the Catholic Church

Between the Council of Trent and the reform of the Catholic Mass (liturgy), undertaken in 1969 (see Mass of Paul VI), the only anaphora used in the Roman Rite was the Roman Canon (or ''Canon of the Mass''). For the history of the "Roman Canon" see also articles Canon of the Mass, Pre-Tridentine Mass and Tridentine Mass.

With introduction in 1969 of the Mass of Paul VI, it was allowed to have multiple choices of Eucharistic Prayer, however the authorization of new Eucharistic Prayers is reserved to the Holy See. All the new Eucharistic Prayers follow the Antiochene structure with the noticeable difference that the Epiclesis is placed, according to the uses of the Roman tradition, before the Words of Institution and not after.
The first approved Eucharistic Prayers are four:
* Eucharistic Prayer n. 1: it is the ancient ''Roman Canon'' with minimal variations. This ancient text is especially appropriate for Sundays, unless for pastoral considerations Eucharistic Prayer III is preferred.
* Eucharistic Prayer n. 2: it is based on the ancient Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition with some adaptations to bring it in line with the other prayers. It is quite short, so it is appropriate for weekday use. It has its own Preface, based on the ''Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition'', but it can be substituted by the proper Preface of the Mass of the day;
* Eucharistic Prayer n. 3: it is a new composition that uses the Antiochene structure filled with Alexandrine and Roman themes. Its use is preferred on Sundays and feast days and it is to be used with the proper Preface of the day;
* Eucharistic Prayer n. 4: it is a new composition with a strong sacrificial wording and a fuller summary of salvation history. It has its own integral Preface which cannot be substituted. It is based on Eastern anaphoras; especially that of St. Basil the Great.

In the years after the reform of Pope Paul VI other Eucharistic Prayers were authorized:
* four Eucharistic Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions proposed by the Swiss Synod (these are sometimes called the "Swiss Synod Eucharistic Prayers") were approved by the Holy See on August 8, 1974. These four prayers, built as a single prayer with four thematic variations, have been allowed to be used in France since 1978, in Italy since 1980, and the English version was approved in 1995.
* two Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of Reconciliation were approved provisionally (''ad experimentum'') in 1975;
* three Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children were also approved provisionally in 1975.

Other Latin rites in the Catholic Church

A typical characteristic of the Latin rites different from the Roman Rite is the great variability of portions of the Roman Canon which change according to the liturgical year and the Mass.
The Mozarabic Rite has as variable texts the ''Illatio'' (i.e. the Preface), the Post-Sanctus and the ''Post-Pridie'', that is the prayer said between the Institution narrative and the doxology in place of the Intercessions which are placed before the Sursum Corda. In the Gallican Rite the Preface is named ''Contestatio'' or ''Immolatio'' and the Institution narrative is named ''Secreta'' or ''Mysterium''

The Ambrosian Rite during the centuries has lost its ancient variety, even if it maintains a richness of choices for the Preface and its first Eucharistic Prayer is slightly different form the Roman one mainly in the Words of Institution. Recently two typical additional ancient Eucharistic Prayers have been restored, to be used mainly on Easter and Holy Thursday.

Methodist Rite

The United Methodist Church has twenty-two Eucharistic Prayers that are modeled on the pattern of the Antiochene pattern; these are contained in the Book of Worship. The "notion of a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving", dating back to Irenaeus, is emphasized in the United Methodist Church's "anamnesis and offering: 'And so in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died...'" The Methodist Rite, as with the Presbyterian liturgy, places the Memorial Acclamation

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases