What are the elements of the Eucharistic Prayer?
The chief elements of the Eucharistic Prayer are:
- Thanksgiving (expressed especially in the Preface): In the name of the entire people of God, the priest praises God the Father and gives thanks to him for the whole work of salvation or for some special aspect of it that corresponds to the day, feast, or season.
- Acclamation: Joining with the angels, the congregation sings or recites the Sanctus. This acclamation is an intrinsic part of the Eucharistic Prayer, and all the people join with the priest in singing or reciting it.
- Epiclesis (invocation): In special invocations, the Church implores the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands be consecrated, that is, become Christ’s body and blood, and that the spotless Victim to be received in Communion be the source of salvation for those who will partake of it.
- Narrative of the Institution and Consecration: In the words and actions of Christ, that sacrifice is celebrated which he himself instituted at the Last Supper, when he offered, under the appearances of bread and wine, his body and blood, gave them to his apostles to eat and drink, and then commanded that they perpetuate and reenact this mystery.
- Anamnesis (memorial): In fulfillment of the command received from Christ through the apostles, the Church keeps his memorial by recalling especially his passion, resurrection, and ascension.
- Oblation: The oblation or offering of the victim is part of a sacrifice. In this memorial, the Church, and in particular the Church here and now assembled, offers the spotless Victim to the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Church’s intention is that the faithful not only offer the Victim but also learn to offer themselves and so to surrender themselves, through Christ the Mediator, to an ever more complete union with the Father and with each other, so that at last God may be all in all.
- Intercessions: The intercessions make it clear that the Eucharist is celebrated in communion with the entire Church and all its members, living and dead, who are called to share in the salvation and redemption purchased by Christ’s body and blood. This part includes also the commemoration of the saints in whose glory we hope to share.
- Final Doxology: The praise of God is expressed in the doxology, to which the people’s acclamation is an assent and a conclusion.
In accordance with the rubrics, the priest selects a Eucharistic Prayer from those found in the Roman Missal or approved by the Apostolic See. The Eucharistic Prayer demands, by its very nature, that the priest say it in virtue of his ordination. The people, for their part, should associate themselves with the priest in faith and in silence, as well as through their parts: specifically, the responses in the Preface dialogue, the Sanctus, the acclamation after the consecration, and the acclamatory Amen after the final doxology.
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