Understanding our Faith

“He said the Blessing”

After Jesus took the bread, he said the blessing; and so, after we have taken the bread and wine at Mass, we say the Blessing.  And that prayer of blessing is the prayer we call the Eucharistic Prayer.

What is meant by blessing in the Scriptures has two sides to it.  It recognises the blessings which God has given us and it blesses or gives thanks and praise to God for those blessings. 

So, in our Eucharistic Prayer, we gave God thanks for all that he has given us, but above all for what he has done for us in Jesus Christ and especially in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  So, in the initial dialogue, we are invited to lift up our hearts and to give thanks to the Lord our God.  It is for all God’s gifts we give thanks and praise and we do this especially in the Preface, that part of the Eucharistic Prayer which comes before the ‘Holy, Holy’. 

Then, after the ‘Holy, Holy’, we call on the Holy Spirit to make the bread and wine we have brought to the altar, the means by which Christ himself gives us a sharing in his death and resurrection.  We receive this gift as we receive communion.  What we give the Father thanks for continues to be given to us anew as we celebrate the Eucharist. 

After the account of the Last Supper, we pray again to the Holy Spirit to draw us all into the unity of the Body of Christ.  So, for instance, in the third Eucharistic Prayer, we pray: “Grant that we, who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ.”

All that we do and say in the Eucharistic prayer is given to us in holy communion.  The Eucharistic Prayer gives us the meaning of our going to communion.  It is the communion prayer.

You will notice that throughout the Eucharistic Prayer, the pronoun used is always ‘we’ because it is the prayer of the whole community and not just of the priest.  It is said by the priest because it is the priest’s ministry to do and say those things which were said and done by Christ at the Last Supper.

More on the Eucharistic Prayer next week…

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin