In praise of Eucharistic Prayer No. 1

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From the article:

“But when I became Catholic, it was a balm to my soul to hear my priest call down heaven every Lord’s Day with the same ancient words that nourished Gregory the Great, Joan of Arc, the Martyrs of Nagasaki, and countless ancestors in faith across dozens of generations. It seemed to me that this was what being Catholic was all about.”

A well stated and thoughtful article. I recall even as a 12 year old, reading through the Eucharistic Prayer in the 1960 missal and thinking what a beautiful prayer it was.
 
“Especially suited” does not mean always. Having said that, I have nothing against EPI and regularly use it when appropriate - daily during the Christmas and Easter Octave and on other high and holy days (as well as occasionally on the feast of a saint recalled in it). At the same time though, the mass is made of the people of God and not the other way around and so the choices of Eucharistic Prayer should be exercised by the priest in a careful and conscientious manner to suit the nature of the season or the readings of the day. Sadly, however there are some priests whose staple is EPII (with the occasional foray into EPIII) jumping straight to the epiclesis (invoking of the Holy Spirit) if not quite the consecration. There much to be said for all the Eucharistic Prayers (even poor old EPII) and it’s sad that some pastors are unwilling or unable to share the riches in them with their congregation.

PS: EPIV is my personal favourite!
 
InThePew said:
Sadly, however there are some priests whose staple is EPII (with the occasional foray into EPIII) jumping straight to the epiclesis (invoking of the Holy Spirit) if not quite the consecration.
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As a non-Catholic who for years has attended Sunday Mass with my wife, I have become somewhat familiar with the liturgy. Although I enjoy attending with her, when confronted by a priest who uses EP1, I sometimes find myself groaning inside and wishing I was somewhere else. While everyone is certainly entitled to their preferences, and while there are occasions throughout the church year where even I find EP1 to be appropriate, I often get the impression that some priests use it for no other reason than it is longer and more time consuming. (Kind of like the priest who won’t start the procession down the aisle until halfway through the second verse of the gathering hymn or who drag their homilies out for 20 minutes when they could have easily and more efficiently got the message across in 10.) My understanding is that no matter which EP is used, the result is the same - Jesus ends up on the altar. There is no real advantage to using one that is twice as long.

There are two priests at my wife’s parish. One uses EP2. He also uses the short form of the Gospel when one is available, he launches the procession down the aisle with the first note of the gathering hymn (usually resulting in the hymn being only two verses long), he limits his homilies to approximately eight minutes, and he insists that the ushers are heading down the aisle with the collection baskets before the final “amen” of the Prayer of the Faithful has quit echoing through the church. He covers all the bases and there are no liturgical abuses, but the Mass takes only about 45 minutes. The other priest is just the opposite. His Mass takes about 75 minutes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it just “feels” as if he drags things out as long as possible.

There are two Sunday Masses - one at 8:00 and the other at 11:00 - which the two priests rotate each week. The priest with the 45 minute Mass always has the largest attendance - by far - regardless of whether it is the early one or the later one. Clearly, there is a preference for the shorter Mass.

I’m sure that some folks will argue that Sunday is the Lord’s day and that we are short-changing Jesus by trying to get out of Mass as quickly as possible. To these folks I would say, “Go to the long Mass. Enjoy yourself. But the parishioners who choose the shorter Mass have met their obligation just as completely as you have.”

(Just an observation. Other opinions may be different and are just as valid.)
 
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ChuckB said:
when confronted by a priest who uses EP1, I sometimes find myself groaning inside and wishing I was somewhere else.
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Last year, I had a miserable year dealing with a bout of sciatica and standing through the EP was simply hell. I would really groan when EPI came up.

But even then I’m not a big fan of it. I’ve always been a fan of economy of words, but if I have to have a long EP, give me IV. It’s a beautifully written summary of salvation history. I’ve heard it called a “mini Exultet”.

True story, a monk I know happened to know the private secretary of Mgr. Marcel Lefebvre, when he went to my friend’s monastery for an extended period. He confided that Mgr. Lefebvre, in his private Mass, would use EP II if he had a plane to catch… let’s just say that this didn’t endear him to Mgr. Lefebvre, not because he hated EPII but because he hated the hypocrisy of denouncing the reforms of Vatican II while using one of those reforms himself when it was more convenient.

The place I attend Mass, a Benedictine monastery, rotates through all EPs (IV cannot be used this time of the year as it has its own unchangeable preface).

And now my sciatica has cleared up and while I remain not a big fan of EP I, at least I can stand through it.
 
OraLabora said:
But even then I’m not a big fan of it. I’ve always been a fan of economy of words, but if I have to have a long EP, give me IV.
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All y’all westerners are liturgical wimps! 😱🤣:crazy_face:

Try the anaphora from the St. Basil liturgy . . . or go to a Russian Catholic liturgy (the full, unreacted liturgy of the Russian Orthodox, but in English int he US, and I understand it rarely drops below two hours . . .)

But then, I seem to have the only BC priest who regularly finishes in less than an hour–but that’s because he holds the land speed record as the fastest singer . . .

hawk
 
We Latin rite types:

Read, feed, and speed along in 50 minutes. Our specialty 😉

At least in parishes. At the monastery where I go to Mass there are no such constraints. But even in full Gregorian chant, with all the trimmings, Mass takes 1:15 on normal Sundays; if people think that’s too long, they’re free to go elsewhere! It’s a bit longer on some days, such as Palm Sunday, Easter or Pentecost.
 
I really want to make it to one of the Russian Catholic parishes.

They have the full, unreacted, Divine Liturgy, in English, and generally a full two hours (note that most EC and EO have age least some level of redaction–the recent Pittsburgh revisions, for example, reintroduced all of the pieces, but often only the first verse, for example).

I though I was going to be able to do so a few years ago in San Francisco, but it turns out that I wouldn’t have been able to catch my flight back home . . . I think I miscalculated transit times when planning, but caught it before going, and ended up at the RC cathedral instead [and sure was disappointed with that thing that repacked what I remember from childhood! 😱🤯
 
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