The Eucharistic Prayer as Model
Introduction
I wish to suggest how the Eucharistic Prayer is a kind of matrix or model for all of our deepest desiring and praying.
What has gone before, up to this point in the Eucharistic celebration, is the story of salvation as conveyed through the readings of the Liturgy of the Word; the homily has then connected it, hopefully, to our own story, to each one’s life.
During the presentation of the gifts we have had a moment to ponder on how the readings throw light on our lives,whilethey re-awaken and nourish our faith and hope and love. We should now be feeling more closely that we too are part of this story of salvation, that it is working itself out in our own lives.
Hence, we are ready to “lift up our hearts” and so enter more deeply into communication with the heavenly world.
Our very first act in this prayer (which is truly ours, not just the priest’s) is to “give thanks,” that is,to express our gratitude to God with praise to him for all that God is doing in our lives, for all that we have heard in the readings and are experiencing in our daily existence. The prayer begins with the “Preface.”
1. Preface (“prae-fatio” i.e. proclaim aloud)
The keynote of “eucharist” is sounded in the invitation “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” This is motivated anew by the brief recall or “story” told in the preface,which is linked usually to the feast or to the liturgical season. It is nearly always a story that has to do, in some way or other, with the marvels the Lordis carrying out in our own historyas well.
Consciously connected now to the heavenly world, we cry out our response ofwonder and blessing, and of selfless adoration, in anawe-filled cosmic hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts…
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
We then approach the central moment of our fulfillingof the Lord’s command to “do this in memory” of him. Knowing we cannot achieve such “doing” of our own power, we must begin by directing our gaze towards the Pentecostal Spirit.
2. Epiclesis or Invocation of the Spirit I
We call on the Father so that the Spirit might be sent, might “come down” upon the gifts – just as dew falls gently in the night upon the earth. The Spirit’s task is to makethe biblical paschal story real for us, as it came to its final expression at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. Time falls away at this moment and here in this place– where we are all gathered,and are, hopefully, “of one heart and mind” like the disciples after Pentecost(Acts 4,32).
We need to remember at this point that the gifts the Lord takes up in his hands (through the hands of the priest) have been given to him by us. They represent ourselves, the fruit of our toil (bread) and our joy (wine), which we have presented to Christ, so that he might make them his own, in order to give them back to us transformed, as our heavenly nourishment. They will become the victorious fruit of his earthly journey, his paschal mystery – “my body given for you” and “the blood of the new and eternal covenant.. for the forgiveness of sins.”
3. Institution Narrative
In the prayer we recountthe Last Supper story to God (and so to ourselves as well) – indeed, we solemnly “proclaim” it,conscious that God is with us here, in the midst of the assembled community. This part of the prayer has astory form; it is anarrative. The Lord’swords at the Supper are part of the story, not some sort of independent magic formula somehow effective of itself. To realise their purpose they must, rather, be proclaimed with faith and with the firm intention of doing what the church intends us to do.
4. Memorial: Offering or Oblation
Once Christ has made the gifts his own, he draws us into his own unreservedact of offering of himself to the Father. We are now, more deeply than ever, identified with the story, with Jesus’once historical and now eternal offering.
We rejoice that we are able to be united with his self-offeringto the Fatherbecause he has incorporated us ever more profoundly into himself, as members of hisvery body – his Church.By the same token, he unites us to his deepest desires.
For this reason, we call upon the Spiritonce again, asking the Father this time to fillwith power, with Spirit-energy, no longer the gifts but us, our very selves, uniting us more to him.
5. Invocation of the Spirit II
Themeans whereby the communication of the Spirit is now to be achievedwill bethe transformed gifts we brought to the holy table and presented a little while back. They are shortly to be given back to us to be consumed as food for our journey.
The Spirit’s work here is one of “gathering,” continuing God’s age-old work of uniting human beings, first in Israel and now, out of all “nations,” into his Church. So we call upon the Spirit to continuethe Jesus mission in us, through our sharing in the holy gifts that make us into an extension of Christ, who acts still in our human historythrough us, members of his “body.”
6. Intercessions
Because “the love of God has been poured out [anew] into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5,5), it must necessarily overflow in love for others. It is the logic of the one commandment operating in us. Our return love for him is made real and concrete in the love we show for one another. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (Jn 13,35)
We pray for all, the living and the dead, so that each one may attain his or her final destination and the Jesus story reach its full and happy ending in each person, looking to the final goal of our earthly journey in the eternal kingdom of the Father.
7. Doxology
The Prayer has done its work. Our preparation for the sacred moment of approaching the holy table – the communion – is almost complete. A sense of anticipation of the heavenly banquet of the Lamb grips the assembly at this point, and the angelic songs of acclaimring out once more as the minister raises the transformed gifts heavenward and the entire body cries out its wholehearted assent, its great Amen:
Through him, and with him, and in him,
O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honour is yours,
for ever and ever.
R/. Amen
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