A Tour through the Mass!

The Eucharistic Prayer – the Peoples’ Prayer!

During the Eucharistic Prayer, it sometimes seems as if the people take their seats and leave it up to the priest. 

But the whole prayer is prayed with the priest using the pronoun “WE”.  The priest begins saying “Let US give thanks to the Lord our God”; and he continues saying, “Father, it is OUR duty and OUR salvation…. etc.” (Eucharist Prayer 2).  After the account of the Last Supper, we find the words “In memory of his death and resurrection, WE offer you, Father….”.

If we were to go through each of the Eucharistic Prayers, we would find that they are prayed in the first person singular, so using WE and OUR.  This is not a small thing; it is telling us that we are the ones celebrating and entering into communion with the Risen Lord.  The priest prays the prayer in the name of the church, not in his own name.  He is a servant of the gathered church as its communion with Christ is brought about and deepened. 

The People are called to make this prayer their own by their interventions.  Following the Preface in which God is given thanks, they pray or sing the ‘Holy, Holy’.  After the account of the Last Supper and the words of Jesus within that account, the people proclaim the memorial acclamation in one of its three forms – this acclamation acknowledges the mystery into which we are being gathered.  And most important of all, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, the people say the ‘Amen’, traditionally called the Great Amen. 

The Great Amen is the most ancient of the acclamations of the people.  It goes right back into the origins of the Eucharistic Prayer as it emerged out of the Jewish prayers, which were its models.

This ‘Amen’ is the people’s affirmation and agreement to all that has been said and done during the Eucharistic Prayer.  It ought to be given more weight than the other acclamations because of its high significance.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin