Offering A Perpetual Sacrifice
Our recent priest retreat with Fr. Gerry Austin, O.P. has me back to reflecting a bit more deeply on the Eucharist, and in particular the Eucharistic Prayers we as Roman Catholics use each day for celebrating our faith. My hope is to begin a series of reflections here that will explore more deeply the prayers we use and their meaning for us as Christians. Fr. Gerry pointed out to us that his sister had once expressed to him that she went to mass each week in order to plop her life on the altar as an offering to God. He used this example to remind us that it is the entire community that offers the “sacrifice” of the mass when we take all of our joy and suffering, all of our successes and failures, everything that we have encountered during the week and place it in offering to God during the Eucharist.
In the Western Church we follow a certain structure in our Eucharistic Prayers and this structure is something often not known by many of the faithful. My hope is to present the eight elements common to our prayers and then to delve more deeply into each over the next several weeks by looking first at each element and then by sharing my own reflections upon each of the Eucharistic Prayers, currently in use in the West. I invite both my Western and Eastern friends to share their own reflections on each of the prayers as well.
Here are in a nutshell the eight elements.
1. Thanksgiving — This usually occurs in what we call the preface as we first are reminded and proclaim to others the reasons we should give praise to God.
2. Acclamation — Otherwise known as the Sanctus, or Holy, Holy, Holy. This is a very Jewish prayer as well. I remember well bringing Jewish students of mine to religious services on the weekend while working at a residential program for Johns Hopkins University where they prayed, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh. I love this prayer and look forward to blogging on it in more detail.
3. Epiclesis — The calling down of the Holy Spirit. There are two in most Western prayers which I look forward to writing about even more than the Sanctus.
4. Institution Narrative and Consecration — Here is the part that Westerners never miss. It is indeed a very important element, but some Westerners may be surprised to learn about some of our Eastern Christian traditions that place less of an emphasis on this element.
5. Anamnesis — or in English, memorial. This is where we remember all that God has done for us.
6. Offering — This is one of the many places in the celebration of the Eucharist where we offer back to God what he has given to us.
7. Intercessions — Simply put, prayers for all who need them.
8. Final Doxology — Once again, we offer in a large way, what has been given to us, back to the Father.
I hope you all will not only continue to read these future blogposts on the Eucharist, but that you will share your own thoughts and reflections. I look forward to our shared journey.
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