The Novus Ordo Mass - Part IV - The Eucharistic Prayer
The Eucharistic Prayer: The Heart of the Sacrifice
If the Liturgy of the Word is covenantal proclamation, the Eucharistic Prayer is covenantal offering. Everything in the Mass moves toward this moment. The altar is prepared, the gifts are presented, the priest calls the people to prayer — and then the Church enters into her most solemn act: the sacrificial anamnesis of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
The Eucharistic Prayer is not devotional commentary. It is the Church’s solemn thanksgiving (eucharistia), oblation, and invocation of the Holy Spirit over the gifts and the faithful. Here, according to Catholic doctrine, Christ’s one sacrifice becomes sacramentally present.¹
The postconciliar reform preserved the Roman Canon but also introduced additional Eucharistic Prayers. To understand this development, one must distinguish carefully between what the Council mandated and what the Consilium implemented.
I. Structure of the Eucharistic Prayer
The Eucharistic Prayer follows a stable Roman architecture:
Preface
Sanctus
Epiclesis
Institution Narrative
Anamnesis
Oblation
Intercessions
Doxology
This structure reflects the classical shape of Christian anaphoras and expresses the Church’s understanding that sacrifice is:
thanksgiving,
memorial,
invocation,
offering,
and communion.²
II. The Preface: Thanksgiving Before Consecration
Theological Meaning
The Preface gives thanks to the Father through Christ in the Spirit for the particular mystery being celebrated. It frames the sacrifice within salvation history.
Thanksgiving is not secondary. The Eucharist is so named precisely because it is first an act of thanksgiving.³
The Preface culminates in the Sanctus, joining the Church to the heavenly liturgy described in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4.
Development
The Roman Rite always possessed proper prefaces. However, the postconciliar reform significantly expanded the number of prefaces available in the Missal.
Sacrosanctum Concilium called for the treasures of liturgical prayer to be opened more abundantly and for texts to be restored from ancient sources where appropriate.⁴
The Consilium responded by:
restoring ancient prefaces,
composing new ones,
and expanding thematic richness across the liturgical year.
This development clearly exceeds mere simplification; it represents enrichment through historical retrieval.
III. The Sanctus: The Earth Joins Heaven
Theological Meaning
The Sanctus proclaims:
“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts…”
This hymn unites earthly worship with the angelic praise of Isaiah 6 and the heavenly liturgy of Revelation. The Church understands that the Eucharistic Prayer is not confined to earth. It is participation in the eternal worship of the Lamb.⁵
The Sanctus marks the threshold between thanksgiving and sacrificial action.
Development
The Sanctus remained unchanged in substance. The reform emphasized congregational participation in its singing, in keeping with the Council’s emphasis on active participation.⁶
No theological alteration occurred here; this is continuity.
IV. The Epiclesis: Invocation of the Holy Spirit
Theological Meaning
The Epiclesis invokes the Holy Spirit upon the gifts so that they may become the Body and Blood of Christ.
While the Roman Canon always contained an implicit epiclesis, the postconciliar Eucharistic Prayers make it more explicit.
Theologically, this expresses Trinitarian cooperation:
The Father receives,
The Son offers,
The Spirit transforms.⁷
The Church affirms that the Eucharistic transformation occurs through Christ’s words spoken by the priest, but always in the power of the Holy Spirit.⁸
Development
The clearer articulation of the epiclesis in Eucharistic Prayers II–IV reflects ecumenical and patristic scholarship that highlighted the role of the Spirit in ancient anaphoras.
Sacrosanctum Concilium did not mandate adding new Eucharistic Prayers, nor did it require restructuring the Canon.⁹ It stated that elements which had suffered injury through history should be restored to earlier vigor.
The Consilium interpreted this as permitting:
preservation of the Roman Canon,
and composition of additional Eucharistic Prayers drawing from early sources.
This represents one of the most significant structural developments of the reform.
V. The Institution Narrative and Consecration
Theological Meaning
At the heart of the Eucharistic Prayer are Christ’s words:
“This is my Body… This is the chalice of my Blood…”
The Church teaches that through these words, spoken in persona Christi, the substance of bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ — the doctrine of transubstantiation.¹⁰
The Mass does not repeat Calvary. It makes the one sacrifice present sacramentally.¹¹
Development
The Institution Narrative remains doctrinally unchanged. The reform retained essential wording while making vernacular proclamation more widely available.
The Council permitted vernacular use in certain circumstances but did not abolish Latin.¹² The expanded use of vernacular in the Eucharistic Prayer became universal in practice, though Latin remained normative in principle.
This development is disciplinary rather than doctrinal.
VI. The Anamnesis and Oblation
Theological Meaning
After consecration, the Church proclaims:
“We proclaim your Death, O Lord…”
The anamnesis is not mere remembrance. It is sacrificial memorial in the biblical sense — a making-present of salvific events.¹³
The oblation follows: the Church offers the Victim to the Father.
This affirms the sacrificial character defined dogmatically by the Council of Trent.¹⁴
Development
The Roman Canon already contained anamnetic and oblation language. The new Eucharistic Prayers replicate this structure while using varied expressions.
The development lies not in removing sacrifice but in expressing it with diversified liturgical language.
VII. The Intercessions
Theological Meaning
The Eucharistic Prayer includes prayers for:
the Pope and bishop,
clergy and faithful,
the living and the dead.
This demonstrates that the Eucharist is ecclesial, not individual. The Church on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven are united in this offering.¹⁵
Development
The Roman Canon included fixed intercessions. The new Eucharistic Prayers preserve the intercessory dimension while varying wording.
This reflects adaptation without theological rupture.
VIII. The Doxology: “Through Him, With Him, In Him”
Theological Meaning
The Eucharistic Prayer concludes:
“Through Him, and with Him, and in Him…”
This Trinitarian doxology summarizes the entire sacrificial act: all glory returns to the Father through Christ in the unity of the Spirit.
The Great Amen that follows is the people’s ratification of the sacrifice.¹⁶
Development
The doxology is ancient and unchanged. The reform emphasized congregational acclamation of the “Amen” as a visible act of assent.
This is continuity expressed more audibly.
IX. The Introduction of Additional Eucharistic Prayers
Historical Development Under the Consilium
Before the reform, the Roman Rite used essentially one Eucharistic Prayer: the Roman Canon.
The Council did not explicitly mandate multiple Eucharistic Prayers.¹⁷ However, it allowed restoration and adaptation of elements from ancient sources.
The Consilium, under the direction of Paul VI and with Annibale Bugnini as secretary, introduced:
Eucharistic Prayer II (inspired by the Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus),
Eucharistic Prayer III (new composition with Roman structure),
Eucharistic Prayer IV (with extended salvation-history preface).
These were promulgated in the 1969 Missale Romanum.¹⁸
The rationale given was:
pastoral adaptability,
theological richness,
recovery of ancient forms,
and liturgical variety.
Scholarly debate continues regarding:
whether the multiplication of anaphoras aligns fully with Roman tradition,
and whether this exceeded the Council’s explicit language.
Historically, this is the most substantial structural change within the Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Rite.
Summary
The Eucharistic Prayer in the Novus Ordo preserves the essential sacrificial theology defined at Trent and maintained in the Roman tradition.
However, the introduction of multiple Eucharistic Prayers represents a development that goes beyond the Council’s explicit wording and into the realm of postconciliar implementation.
The Roman Canon remains intact. The structure of sacrificial anamnesis remains intact. The doctrine of transubstantiation remains untouched.
Yet the rhetorical, structural, and pastoral landscape of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer expanded significantly under the Consilium.
The heart of the Mass remains sacrifice.
The question of development lies not in doctrine—but in liturgical architecture.
Endnotes
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) §§1352–1353.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) §79.
CCC §1328.
Sacrosanctum Concilium §50.
Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8; GIRM §79(b).
Sacrosanctum Concilium §30.
CCC §1105.
Council of Trent, Session XXII.
Sacrosanctum Concilium §23, §50.
CCC §1376.
CCC §1367.
Sacrosanctum Concilium §36.
CCC §1362–1364.
Council of Trent, Session XXII, Doctrine on the Sacrifice of the Mass.
CCC §1370.
GIRM §79(h).
Sacrosanctum Concilium §50.
Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (1969).
