Perhaps, one of the most overlooked parts of the Mass is the Eucharistic Prayer; the exception being “the Institution Narrative,” or what is frequently referred to as the consecration.  It is to our detriment that we do this because we lose sight of the purpose of the Prayer. It is about gratitude, thanks and praise to the Father as we recall all God has done for us.  Standing in gratitude and praise, we are moved into a space of awe and worship. We need to worship: it’s a basic human need.  If we don’t worship God, we will find someone or something else to worship!

   Possibly another reason this magnificant Prayer doesn’t receive the attention that it should is it is thought of as the priest’s prayer.  It isn’t; it is ours which he prays in our names!  A quick scan of the pronouns (we, our) shows they are all first person plural.  It is our prayer so it behooves us to pay attention to what we are saying to God and asking God.

   The Eucharistic Prayer begins with the dialogue between ourselves and the priest which introduces the Preface.  It is in the Preface that we remember some specific saving actions of the Father.  After this we join with the angels and saints to praise the Father.  Our praise begins by acknowledging that the Father is all holy and the source of all holiness.

    There are a number of things we might do to help us make the Prayer our own.  One such exercise is to carve out time to slowly and meditatively pray with one of the Eucharistic Prayers   Our Missalettes have four of the thirteen approved Eucharistic Prayers used by the Roman Church.   Of those readily available, Prayers II, III, and IV, especially, lend themselves to this.

   Since a large portion of the Prayer has the pray-ers remembering and thanking the Father for all God has done, a usual starting point is to recall all that God has done for us in our own lived experience, but we can’t stop there.  We are part of a much larger picture of God’s involvement and care for humanity and all of creation; so there’is need to move to the much larger story of which we are a part.  This is the story of God’s reaching out, healing and reconciling us since the beginnning of time.  Asking God’s Spirit to give us eyes to see where God has been active is an important step in making the prayer our own.

• Open my Eyes, Lord
• Christ Be Our Light