A listener named Brittany asks Father Dave about the Eucharistic Prayer. She wonders, “Is there an easy way to know what Eucharist Prayer is going to be used at Saturday night or Sunday Mass? I like to follow along in a prayer book throughout Mass, and I have a hard time at this point figuring out which prayer is being read.”
Father Dave also commends Brittany’s desire to pay attention, though reading the Eucharistic Prayer as a member of the congregation is not necessary. “One of the big changes that the Second Vatican Council brought about was [encouraging] full, active and conscious participation in the worship. What I hear you asking for, Brittany, is [that you] want to be engaged. …Some people are very visual, and if seeing the words is a help for you to stay engaged, then that is good.”
LISTEN: Why Are There Multiple Eucharistic Prayers?
In answering her question, Father Dave says, “When you talk about the Eucharistic prayers that the priest could choose to use at Mass, there are a lot more than are in the typical heavy rotation. Just like when you’re listening to the radio, and you hear a few songs a few songs a lot, and then you hear one song and say, Boy, I haven’t heard that in a while. It’s kind of like that with the Eucharist prayers.”
“There are a few that you’ll hear a lot, and then a few that will be hard for you, as someone in the pews, to figure out,” he adds. “So let’s limit ourselves to four main Eucharistic prayers, and they are named very simply, Eucharistic Prayer I, II, III, and IV.” He notes that the two most commonly used are prayers II and III.
Father Dave offers some ways to differentiate between the prayers, beginning after the preface prayer and Sanctus. “If it’s Sunday Mass, you’re most likely singing or chanting the Sanctus, the ‘Holy, holy, holy….’ As that’s concluding, the next few words that the priest says are different in all four prayers, and if you get to know them, you’ll know pretty quickly which prayer he’s using,” he says. “In Eucharistic Prayer II, after the ‘Holy, holy, holy’ is over, the priest says, ‘You are holy indeed O Lord, the fount of all holiness. Make holy therefore these gifts we pray by sending down your spirit upon them like the’ — Ding, ding, ding, here comes the keyword — ‘dewfall.’ So the word ‘dewfall’ is only in Eucharistic Prayer II and it’s pretty close to the beginning.”
In Eucharistic Prayer III, Father Dave says that after the Sanctus the priest says, “‘You are indeed holy. O Lord, and all you have created rightly gives you praise. For through your son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit. You give life to all things and make them holy.’ So if you hear that God is giving life to all things and making them holy through Jesus Christ, that’s Eucharistic Prayer III.”
LISTEN: Why Does the Priest Sometimes Recite a List of Names in the Eucharistic Prayer?
Father Dave concludes, “I don’t want to downplay or say that the Church says you shouldn’t use a prayer book, but [try to] engage in a way where you don’t have to have your face buried in the prayer book, and you can be taking in everything else that’s happening in Mass.”
“Think of the times, for so many centuries of the Church, where people were illiterate and didn’t have a prayer book, and they’re taking in everything,” he adds. “Our spaces are designed to be beautiful, so that perhaps during the Eucharistic Prayer, you’re meditating on a beautiful piece of stained glass. It’s less important that you hear and understand every single word of the Eucharistic Prayer.”