TRADITIONAL LITURGY IN ITS POST-VATICAN II FORM - 4: EUCHARISTIC PRAYER IV by Louis Bouyer and Enrico Mazza
It is truly right to give you thanks, truly just to give you glory, Father, most holy, for you are the one God living and true, existing before all ages and abiding for all eternity, dwelling in unapproachable light; yet you, who alone are good, the source of life, have made all that is, so that you might fill your creatures with blessings and bring joy to many of them by the glory of your light. And so, in your presence are countless hosts of Angels, who serve you day and night and, gazing upon the glory of your face, glorify you without ceasing. With them we, too, confess your name in exultation, giving voice to every creature under heaven as we acclaim: Sanctus…
We give you praise, Father most holy, for you are great, and you have fashioned all your works in wisdom and in love. You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.
And when through disobedience he had lost your friendship, you did not abandon him to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you. Time and again you offered them covenants and through the prophets taught them to look forward to salvation.
And you so loved the world, Father most holy, that in the fullness of time you sent your Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to the sorrowful of heart, joy.
To accomplish your plan, he gave himself up to death, and, rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life. And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full.
Therefore, O Lord, we pray: may this same Holy Spirit graciously sanctify these offerings, that they may become the Body + and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for the celebration of this great mystery, which he himself left us as an eternal covenant.For when the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, Father most holy, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end: and while they were at supper, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.
In a similar way, taking the chalice filled with the fruit of the vine, he gave thanks, and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying:
TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT; WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.Therefore, O Lord, as we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, we remember Christ’s death and his descent to the realm of the dead; we proclaim his Resurrection and his Ascension to your right hand; and as we await his coming in glory, we offer you his Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to you which brings salvation to the whole world.
Look, O Lord, upon the Sacrifice which you yourself have provided for your Church, and grant in your loving kindness to all who partake of this one Bread and one Chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.
In the epiclesis (=invocation) God is formally asked to send the Spirit that he may transform the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord – a theme lacking in the Roman canon. The epiclesis should not be called “invocation of the Spirit” since the prayer is addressed not to the Spirit but to the Father, and it is the Father who sanctifies through the Spirit.
In the anaphoras of the Missal the Eastern epiclesis has been divided into two parts: one (before the account of the institution) asks for the consecration of the bread and wine, and the other (after the anamnesis) asks for the sanctification of the faithful who receive communion. The solution was adopted for theological and pastoral reasons and represents a return, justifiable or not, to the Alexandrian anaphoral structure. The latter probably provides the sole conscious liturgical basis for the theological decision made. Further support is found in some epicletic Post-Sanctus prayers in the non-Roman Latin liturgies, which contain texts that are theologically closer to the position in the Roman Missal.
Independently of the historical basis for the decision, we must recognise the value of the choice made, namely the positive ecumenical significance it has and the pastoral success it has met with. It will be the task of catechists to bring out the fact that the sanctification brought about by the words of the Lord is effected by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit brought about the Incarnation of the Word, so he continues to act in our celebration. The theme is a traditional one, expecially in the Fathers.
“Both ideas [anamnesis and oblation] contain an objective element as well as a subjective one. But memorial as well as oblation must be realised in ourselves as our own remembrane and our offering. Then, and only then, can a ‘worship in spirit and truth’in the fullest sense arise to God from our hands.” J.A. Jungmann
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
We do not understand, therefore, the concern of those who claim that to emphasise the one to draw attention away from the other. When we emphasise the real presence, we do not neglect the sacrifice or vice versa. And if we emphasise the memorial, we do not neglect real presence, or vice versa.
Always bear in mind that the liturgy locates “offering” within the process of remembering, where it serves to express the remembering and present it to God.
EPICLESIS FOR UNITY
The beginning of the epiclesis serves as a link with the preceding prayer of offering. [It develops further the theme of "the gifts you have given us" - which you won't find in the current English translation which talks about "the oblation of your Church," thus missing the allusion to the ram that Abraham called "the sacrifice that the Lord has provided": through consecration, Christ's body and blood are the sacrifice that God has provided for us to offer.]
No one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him (Jn 6, 44). Therefore we ask the Father that our encounter with Christ may be salutary and redemptive for us through the action of the Spirit. If, however, we want a fuller understanding of our epiclesis as an appeal to the Father to send the Spirit, we must begin with the anamnesis, since it is the latter with its commemoration of the ascension that leads us into, and even generates, the epiclesis.
The Letter to the Hebrews shows us that when the redemption wrought by Christ is expressed in Old Testament cultic terms, it has two stages: (1) the bloody self-offering on the altar of the cross; and (2) the entrance into the heavenly sanctuary by means of the resurrection and ascension. Death, resurrection and ascension, thus constitute a single sacrificial act that has two phases, an earthly and a heavenly. In his ascension, the Lord “has…entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” There, “he always lives to make intercession for them,” and his sacrificial blood is “the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel” in interceding with God.
As A. Tarby says, the mention of the ascension in the anamnesis affirms the uniqueness and eternal irrevocableness of the sacrifice offered. To put it differently, the mention of the ascension reminds us that Christ carries on his work of salvation in an endless intercession based on the cross. If we ask what the concrete content is of this prayer of Jesus that eternalizes his sacrifice we must turn back to Jn 14, 16-17), “I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” The sacrifice of Christ, as an endless prayer offered at the right hand of the Father, is completed when the Father gives the Spirit. Thus the ascension leads to Pentecost as its fulfilment. “The ascension is the epiclesis par excellence” because the Son prays to the Father and the result is Pentecost.
The epiclesis of Anaphora IV does not ask explicitly for the descent of the Holy Spirit; rather, it supposes that this has already occurred, and thus reiforces the connection between anamnesis and epiclesis. This approach to the epiclesis strongly emphasises the identity between the fruit of the Spirit’s action and the fruit of the body and blood of the Lord as made sacramentally visible in the one bread and the one cup.
The fruit in question is the unity of the Church which is to become one body in Christ. Everyone recalls Augustine’s theology of unity, which is summed up in the well-known exclamation:
“O sacrament of piety, O sign of unity, O bond of charity!”
Therefore, Lord, remember now all for whom we make this sacrifice: especially your servant, N. our Pope, N. our Bishop, and the whole Order of Bishops, all the clergy, those who take part in this offering, those gathered here before you, your entire people, and all who seek you with a sincere heart.
Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known. To all of us, your children, grant, O merciful Father, that we may enter into a heavenly inheritance with the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, St Joseph, her spouse, and with your Apostles and Saints in your kingdom. There, with the whole of creation, freed from the corruption of sin and death, may we glorify you through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.
The mention of “all who seek you with a sincere heart” is a truly inspired addition which echoes an earlier sentence spoken shortly after the Sanctus: “In your mercy you came to the aid of all of them, so that they may seek and find you.” This phrase of the intercessions makes movingly present in our Eucharist all those who have not yet discovered the greatness of the Lord but are journeying towards him, even if without their knowledge.
The last part, just before the doxology, is a prayer for “us,” all who celebrate the praises of God and his Christ. The prayer is that we may share in the ultimate realities, those heavenly realities which we have nostalgically contemplated during the celebration. This final section develops themes introduced in the Sanctus. We ask for a “heavenly inheritance,” with the saints; and not only with the the saints, for it is the whole of creation, all living things, and all human beings that will become and be a new heaven and a new earth after being freed from the corruption of sin and death.
DOXOLOGY
The final section sums up the anaphora; at the same time, it harks back to the opening thanksgiving and praises God in advance for what has been requested in the anaphora and which, as we know, he has already granted.
The doxology, be it noted, is accompanied by the great elevation of the species. This elevation makes it emphatically clear that we have reached the high point and completion of the entire prayer, which is expressed in trinitarian form. In the trinitarian doxology, the anaphora becomes a triumphal proclamation of the divine Name which, when invoked and proclaimed over us, becomes supreme blessing and perfect sanctification (Nm 6: 24-27)
I was forced to make use of Enrico Mazza’s “Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite” in this article because I found, to my consternation, that my copy of Louis Bouyer’s “Eucharist” has two pages missing, and it is difficult to find another copy in Peru.
I am sorry that I gave you the article on the “Roman Canon” before this one – my memory was playing me tricks. However, here is another, written only a few days ago, especially for you, on Eucharistic Prayer IV: and I shall try to give you a new edition on the Roman Canon which should be better than it is, next week.
Source: http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2015/01/traditional-liturgy-in-its-post-vatican_29.html
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The Christ-i-anti’s Eucharist was scabbed from the mystery cult called Mithraism, along with Baptism and everything else, church hirearchy, costumes, rituals, terminology, festivals dates and all.
The Eucharist existed in Mithraism for thousands of years before the state enforced thought and belief intolerant political dictatorship called Christianity was created in the 6th century CE.