Reflections on the Mass: The Eucharistic Prayer

We now enter into the climax of the Mass as the priest begins to recite the Eucharistic Prayer. There are four major Eucharistic Prayers that the priest can choose from. They are of varying lengths and complexities, but they all contain the necessary elements of the epiclesis, the institution narrative and consecration, and the anamnesis.

The epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit to come down upon the gifts of bread and wine and transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ. We watch as the priest extends his hands over our offerings and asks God to accept them and to change our hearts and minds and lives along with them so that we may be all the more ready and eager to receive our Lord. A server will sometimes ring a bell to remind us that a very important invocation is taking place.

The institution narrative follows. While the prayers are slightly different in each Eucharistic Prayer, they all recall how, on the night before He suffered and died for us, Jesus took bread, broke it, gave thanks to the Father, and said, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is My Body, which will be given up for you.” With these words, the bread on the altar becomes the Body of Christ. The priest is acting in persona Christi, and Christ acts through Him as the Holy Spirit answers the prayer of the epiclesis. This is the first part of the consecration.

The priest is holding the bread as he speaks the words of consecration and the transubstantiation takes place on the altar. He then raises the Host up for all to view. We cannot see the transformation happen, but we know it by faith.

The priest then takes up the chalice, recalling how Jesus took the chalice in His hands and said the blessing before giving it to the disciples with these words: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of My Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of Me.” With these words, the wine is transformed into the Blood of Christ.

Jesus Christ is now present on the altar, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We have the obligation to worship Him in wonder and awe and to receive Him with the greatest reverence. We declare this mystery of faith with a brief response proclaiming the death and resurrection of our Lord and declaring that He has set us free and that we will continue to proclaim this mystery until He comes again.

Each Eucharistic Prayer also features an anamnesis, a remembrance. In the anamnesis, we do exactly what Jesus commanded us to do when He said, “Do this in memory of Me.” We remember what Jesus did, but we also remember the people with whom we share in this offering and those for whom we pray. We remember the whole Church, clergy and laity together. We remember those living and those who have gone before us. We remember the saints and those who may still be suffering in Purgatory. We remember our own special intentions. What is more, we ask God the Father to remember all of this, too. It is not that He will ever forget, but we reverently place all of this before Him so that we do not forget.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface Acclamation

The priest ends the Preface of the Eucharistic prayer with an invitation to us. We are to join our voices to those of the angels and sing a hymn of praise to God in all His glory. So we lift up our voices and our hearts in praise.

“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.” We proclaim three times that God is holy, and this reminds us that God is Trinity in Unity. He is one God, one divine substance, but three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don't have to understand it, and we never fully will, but we do have to belief it. For God has revealed it. “Lord God of hosts” reminds us that God is the God of the angels, too, of His angel army. This is His military title, reminding us of His omnipotence.

“Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.” This is more true than we realize. God's glory surrounds us. His creation reflects it, each element in its own way. We, too, are called to reflect God's glory and to respond to His glory with awe and wonder. Everything around us is a gift from Him. We don't deserve any of it. He gives it freely out of love. Are we grateful?

“Hosanna in the highest.” Hosanna is a cry of rejoicing, but the word literally means “save us” or “rescue us.” As we pray this line, we are to recognize that only God can save us and rescue us from our sins and our weakness and the horrible messes we get ourselves into. God is the Savior. We need His salvation to the maximum. We rely on His help, for we cannot save ourselves. So when we say “Hosanna,” we cry out to God for something that only He can give: our salvation.

“Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.” This line comes from Matthew 21:9. Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on the day that would come to be known as Palm Sunday. The crowd is celebrating before Him, crying out that He is blessed and that He has come in the name of the Lord. They are recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, but they do not fully realize yet that He is also God. Yet their praise is sincere, and now we echo it, and we have all the more reason to do so, for we know Who Jesus is.

“Hosanna in the highest.” Still echoing the crowd in Jerusalem, once more we proclaim, “Hosanna in the highest.” We join our voices to theirs, asking God to save us and rejoicing because He has, He is, and He will.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface

The Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer varies with the liturgical seasons and solemnities. Priests can choose from a number of different Prefaces for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Each one specifically addresses the season and provides a beautiful reflection on salvation history and on the mystery and awe of the Eucharist.

Each Preface begins with a reference to our previous response of “It is right and just.” The priest reiterates, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give You thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.” Think about these words for a moment. God deserves all our thanks and praise. It is our duty to thank and praise Him. It is our salvation to thank and praise Him, for in doing so, we open ourselves to His grace, and we repent of our sins.

The Eucharist is the high point of our praise and thanksgiving. We join ourselves to Jesus as He offers the highest sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the Father, the almighty and eternal God, Who graciously bows down to accept our sacrifice of His beloved Son. Then we have the opportunity to receive the Son in the most intimate way possible.

The Preface helps us meditate on the sheer beauty and wonder of the Eucharistic mystery we are entering into. Yet it goes by so quickly that we may miss it if we aren't paying close attention. It helps to read through the Prefaces for the current liturgical season in the missal and reflect on them, allowing them to sink deeply into our minds and hearts. Then when we hear them at Mass, we can bask in their depths and in the light of their truth.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preface Dialogue

The Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer opens with a short dialogue between the priest and the people. This can go by so quickly that we may miss its importance.

The priest begins with “The Lord be with you.” Think about this for a moment. This is a tremendous blessing, especially since our Lord is about to be with us in an unimaginably intimate way when we receive Him in the Eucharist. But He is always with us, of course. He dwells within us when we are in a state of grace. He holds us in being at every moment. So the priest says these words as a reminder of that reality and as a prayer that we may recognize God's presence and respond to Him by growing ever closer to Him.

We respond, “And with your spirit.” At this point, we should remember what the priest is about to do. He is about to act in persona Christi, in the person of Christ, to consecrate the Eucharist. Through the priest, Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. What a gift this is! And what a responsibility. So as we say these words, we should mean them in a deep way. We should be praying that Jesus work in and through the priest and that the priest open himself up to the work of our Lord, that he make himself a channel of grace.

The priest then exhorts us, “Lift up your hearts,” and we reply, “We lift them up to the Lord.” As we say that, we should do it, as fully as we can. Our focus should be fully on God and on the prayer and worship we are offering in the Mass. We must prepare ourselves to welcome and receive Jesus in the Eucharist, and this requires a raised heart, a heart lifted up to God in love and adoration. We give God the hearts He has given to us and love Him with the love He so graciously provides.

Finally, the priest prays, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” There is so much to be grateful for. God has given us everything we have and everything we are. And He is about to give us Himself in the Eucharist. We should be filled with wonder and gratitude. We reply, “It is right and just.” It is right and just indeed, for God deserves every bit of our gratitude. When we are thankful, we recognize all the gifts He has given us. We deserve none of them, yet He is generous beyond our wildest dreams. That's because He loves us.

Reflections on the Mass: The Preparation of the Gifts

At this point in the Mass, the priest prepares the gifts he is about to offer on the altar. We prepare our minds and hearts to join in the sacrifice.

The priest begins by praying either quietly or aloud a blessing over the bread, blessing God for His great gift to us that we now offer back to Him so that it can become the bread of life. If the priest is speaking out loud, we join our blessing to his by responding, “Blessed be God for ever.” We should mean it, too, for, in blessing God, we are recognizing His awesomeness, His perfection, His generosity toward His creatures, and His great love for us.

The priest then turns his attention to the wine. He (or the deacon) has already mixed the wine with a little water, speaking a quiet prayer that “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” The priest now prays the blessing over the wine, against blessing God for His gift that we offer back to Him that it may become our spiritual drink. We again respond, “Blessed be God for ever.”

Both of these preparation prayers mention that these gifts, the bread and the wine, are the work of human hands. We human beings are to use the natural gifts that God has given us, the wheat, the grapes, our bodies, our minds, to cooperate in His saving plan.

The priest prays quietly, asking that God accept us, with our “humble spirit and contrite heart,” and that our sacrifice may find favor in His sight and be pleasing to Him. Then he washes his hands, praying that God wash away his sins.

The priest then invites us to pray that this sacrifice, both his and ours, may be acceptable to God. We echo that prayer, adding that we wish to give praise and glory to God's name through our sacrifice and receive good for ourselves and for the Church. The priest extends his hands and says another prayer over the gifts. This one is seasonal, and we can find it in the missal. We should pay close attention to it and join in it with a firm “Amen.”

We are now ready to enter into the Eucharistic Prayer.

Reflections on the Mass: The Offeratory

When the Prayers of the Faithful are complete, we sit down for the Offeratory. We will often sing a hymn during this time, but we should not get distracted from the many things that are going on.

For one thing, on Sundays and Solemnities, the ushers come around to take up the collection. We should make an effort to give as much as we are able. Supporting the Church is an obligation for us, and while no one should ever dictate an amount for us to give, we should strive to be generous. After all, our parish provides us with Holy Mass and the other sacraments.

The deacon or priest prepares the altar during this time as well. We notice that he carefully places the corporal (the cloth that rests on top of the altar cloth) and sets out the sacred vessels. Then the priest brings or receives the gifts of bread and wine. On Sundays and Solemnities, parishioners carry these gifts forward and present them to the priest. We should join ourselves to them spiritually, for the bread and wine are offered by the entire congregation, and they symbolize the offering of everything we have and everything we are to God.

As the priest lays the bread and wine on the altar, we should place ourselves on the altar as well. We should give God our joys and sorrows, our worries and anxieties, our triumphs and trials, our families, our jobs, our leisure. And mostly, we must give Him ourselves, for we are His anyway. Without Him, we would not exist, and without His constant care, we would cease to exist. The Offeratory is the perfect time to recognize this and give everything back to God, for He has given it all to us.

Reflections on the Mass: Prayers of the Faithful

After the Creed, we remain standing for the Prayers of the Faithful or Universal Prayer. We pray as the Body of Christ, uniting ourselves as one as we cry out to God for our needs.

These prayers often follow a pattern. We pray for our Holy Father the Pope and for our bishop and other members of the clergy that they may lead us well and faithfully. We pray for civic leaders that they may be guided by truth and goodness. We pray for our sick that they may experience the grace and healing of God. We pray for our dead that they may see God's face. We pray for special needs, for an end to abortion perhaps or for relief from a natural disaster.

We bring all of these to God, praying the heartfelt response of “Lord, hear our prayer” or something similar after each petition. Usually, we also have a chance to silently add our own prayers, and we should offer our special intentions to God, lifting them up to Him with confidence, knowing that He hears us and loves us and will respond to us in the way that is best for us according to His perfect will.