Take this, all of you, and eat it;
this is my body which will be given up for you.
How many times do we hear these words at Mass and never realize the beauty of them nor do we realize the beauty of the prayers surrounding them? Too many times we simply follow along because that's what we have been taught or that's what we seem to observe others doing.
The beauty and meaning of the four main Eucharistic Prayers were what we discussed today in class. It was a wonderfully uplifting and meaningful class in my opinion. Here are a few things about each of the prayers.
Eucharistic Prayer I was originally considered the Roman Missal or Canon for probably close to 1600 years. It was also often thought to be the oldest, but that has been under debate because recently it has been thought that Eucharist Prayer II may be at least as old as Eucharistic Prayer I if not maybe even older.
Eucharistic Prayer II is the shortest prayer contained in the post-Vatican II Liturgy, but it is still just as beautiful and meaningful as the others.
Eucharistic Prayers III & IV are the newest of the four main prayers and they came directly from Vatican II.
One thing that is the EXACT same in all four prayers are the words of consecration. This is where the priest acting in persona christi concsecrates the bread and wine and it changes to the Body and Blood of Christ. These words must ALWAYS be read the same way at every Mass, which is why most (if not all) priests will look down at the Sacrementary so that it is read correctly.
This is just a small tidbit of what we discussed today, but I thought what we discussed concerning the Eucharistic prayers was wonderful.
For some additional reading, here are some links to the Eucharistic Prayers
Also, to find more about both the pre-Vatican II Mass (Tridentine or Traditional Latin Mass or Extraordinary Form of the Mass) as well as our current Vatican II Liturgy (Novus Ordo) Mass you can check out The Catholic Liturgical Library.
I pray everyone has a great week!
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