You Just Call On Me, Brother

I was reading over my previous posts today, and something troubling occurred to me:  I haven’t been very funny lately.  Sure, I’ve been informative, but the encyclopedia is informative, and no one reads it anymore.  Ok, that’s partially because no one’s SEEN a set of encyclopedias outside a library and a college history professor’s office since 1987, but that’s not the point.  The point is I set out to be informative AND entertaining, and dag-nabbit, that’s what I’m going to be.  So here goes:

Everyone out there who believes in psychokinesis, raise my hand.  (Thanks, Steven Wright.)

Alright, now that THAT’s out of the way, we last left off with the Sanctus, which you all will join in singing every time you go to Mass now, right?  Right.  So now the REAL substance of the Eucharistic Prayer begins.  Now we’re getting into the part where the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.

Before we dive right in, I want to remind you that there are many options as to what the priest might say next and what order he might say it in.  There are different forms of the Eucharistic Prayer.  To be exact, there are 9 in the current Sacramentary: 4 universal Eucharistic Prayers, 3 Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children, and 2 Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation.  I’ve been to PLENTY of churches around the country, and even a few in 3 other countries, and I can tell you from experience that the most frequently used Eucharistic Prayer is Eucharistic Prayer II.  Why?  Well, let’s be honest, here.  Unfortunately, most Catholics are not like you and me—they want to get in and out as fast as possible just to fulfill their Sunday obligation, and Eucharistic Prayer II is the shortest.  Somewhere along the way, priests began to accept this fact for some reason and appease the people with Eucharistic Prayer II.  So for any priests out there reading this, scrap II for a while and bank on I.  Eucharistic Prayer I is the oldest (fact) and by FAR the coolest (opinion).  For these posts, though, I’ll play to the handicap of the masses (HA! Good pun there, if I do say so, myself!) and reference Eucharistic Prayer II.

So we’re going right into the Epiclesis.  Cool word.  Simple meaning.  An Epiclesis (in general) is simply a calling down of the power of God the Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at how the Epiclesis goes in Eucharistic Prayer II both now and beginning in Advent.

First, we back-track a little and see the Thanksgiving:

Current Text:

Lord, You are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

You are indeed Holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness.

And now for the Epiclesis:

Current Text:

Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Beginning in Advent 2011:

Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So there you have it…the Epiclesis.  Pretty simple, right?  Well, if you said, “Yes,” you should probably seek professional mental help, because you’re talking to a computer screen.  If you simply THOUGHT yes, then you probably haven’t been reading my blog for very long.  This is God we’re talking about, so of course it’s going to be incredibly complicated and nearly impossible for our incredibly simple human minds to comprehend…but we’ll do our best.  See, when the priest calls down the power of God the Holy Spirit, he is beginning a multi-part process of prayerfully having the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.  This change is what we’ll cover next post, so be ready, yo! Playa! What?!  Ok...sorry...I'm done now.