Just discovered something quite curious in the Eucharistic prayers

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At mass today Father read the first Eucharistic prayer. in the “Intercessions” section it contains this line…"admit us, we beseech you, into their company, not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon…
I was about to post his in the apologetics section as a “proof” against the charge of Catholics believing in a, “Works Salvation”, but decided to check the other two Eucharistic prayers before I did.

The Second Eucharistic prayer says this…" Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessed Apostles, and all the Saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life…

The Third Eucharistic prayer makes no mention of merit…

Doesn’t this seem a little odd, that in one prayer we ask God not to count our merits, indicating the inadequacy of our efforts, and in another we pray that we DO merit…:hmmm:🤷
I mean I know that the Church does not teach works salvation, but this just seems a bit contradictory to me…

Anyone else ever notice this?

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
“not weighing our merits” (EP I) … “we may merit” (EP II)

Doesn’t this seem a little odd, that in one prayer we ask God not to count our merits, indicating the inadequacy of our efforts, and in another we pray that we DO merit.
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This is the tension in the Catholic faith of salvation. We are not worthy to receive the gift of salvation, but we are charged to live worthy of having received it: “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph 4:1), “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27), “lead a life worthy of the Lord” (Col 1:10), “lead a life worthy of God” (1 Thess 2:12), “may [God] make you worthy of his call” (2 Thess 1:11).

Consider these definitions of “merit” from Fr. Hardon’s dictionary and the New Catholic Dictionary.
 
in the first example, I believe it does refer to our actions and qualities. So what we are praying is that the Good Lord not count all the good things we’ve done, but forgive us all the bad because let’s face it, there are probably more bad than good in the final tally… In the second instance, merit means worthy. We are asking that God find us worthy to be in the company of the saints… I may be wrong, I’m no linguist or english major but I do believe that merit holds both meanings.
 
In addition to what Japhy says, it is worth pointing out that “merit” appears in this sense in great number of the Collects and other changeable prayers of the Mass (the new translation, regrettably, has even omitted this concept in a number of places where it appears). It is not just a peculiarity of EP II.

Palm Sunday: “graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his Resurrection.”

Tuesday of Holy Week: “grant us so to celebrate the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion that we may merit to receive your pardon.”

Easter Vigil: “grant us, we pray, to set our minds against the enticements of sin, that we may merit to attain eternal joys.”

8th Sunday in OT: “we ask of your mercy that what you grant as the source of merit may also help us to attain merit’s reward.”

19th Sunday in OT: “that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised.”

Etc., etc.
One of my favorite phrases in the old translation was the line you point to in Eucharistic Prayer I, which was rendered: “Do not consider what we truly deserve, but grant us your forgiveness.” I was sad to lose that one, though I am very happy at such gains as “welcome them into the light of your face” in EP II.
 
JRKH said:
At mass today Father read the first Eucharistic prayer. in the “Intercessions” section it contains this line…"admit us, we beseech you, into their company, not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon…
I was about to post his in the apologetics section as a “proof” against the charge of Catholics believing in a, “Works Salvation”, but decided to check the other two Eucharistic prayers before I did.

The Second Eucharistic prayer says this…" Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessed Apostles, and all the Saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life…

The Third Eucharistic prayer makes no mention of merit…

Doesn’t this seem a little odd, that in one prayer we ask God not to count our merits, indicating the inadequacy of our efforts, and in another we pray that we DO merit…:hmmm:🤷
I mean I know that the Church does not teach works salvation, but this just seems a bit contradictory to me…

Anyone else ever notice this?

Peace
James
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I think by saying “not weighing our merits” its meant to say, “we haven’t much merit on us. In fact, we probably have none so please don’t consider that because we have none to show for it.”

In the East we say “look not on our iniquities”.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I think by saying “not weighing our merits” its meant to say, “we haven’t much merit on us. In fact, we probably have none so please don’t consider that because we have none to show for it.”

In the East we say “look not on our iniquities”.
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Are you an Eastern Catholic or still a Latin Catholic?
 
MarkThompson said:
In addition to what Japhy says, it is worth pointing out that “merit” appears in this sense in great number of the Collects and other changeable prayers of the Mass.

Palm Sunday: “graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his Resurrection.”

Tuesday of Holy Week: “grant us so to celebrate the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion that we may merit to receive your pardon.”

Easter Vigil: “grant us, we pray, to set our minds against the enticements of sin, that we may merit to attain eternal joys.”

8th Sunday in OT: “we ask of your mercy that what you grant as the source of merit may also help us to attain merit’s reward.”

19th Sunday in OT: “that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised.”
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Here is a (probably) exhaustive list of the places where “meritum” (merit, the noun), “meritus” (merited, the adjective), and “merere” (to merit, the verb) are used in the Latin texts of the proper (changing parts) of the Mass.

(I’m putting together some helpful Roman Missal English/Latin tools over the next few months.)
 
CroCatholic said:
in the first example, I believe it does refer to our actions and qualities. … In the second instance, merit means [to be] worthy.
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You bring up a good distinction: in EP I, the word “merit” (merita, meriti) is used as a noun:

Communicantes: quorum meritis precibusque (“through their [the saints’] merits and prayers”)

Nobis quoque: non aestimator meriti (“not weighing our merits”)

Those of you familiar with the Latin names for the individual parts of the Canon will realize that the two places the Canon mentions merits are the two parts invoking the saints: in the first (Communicantes), we are asking God to look upon the merits of the saints; in the second, we are asking God to be merciful to us who are not yet saints, instead of looking upon our merits.

In EP II, the word “merit” is the verb merere: aeternae vitae mereamur esse consortes (“may we merit to be co-heirs to eternal life”). The verb merere does not mean simply “merit” (as in “earn; deserve”), but also “gain” (as in “acquire; attain to”) and also “receive pay” (as in a soldier’s wage). So we are not necessarily saying, “may we deserve to go to heaven” (which sounds rather outlandish), but we are saying something more like “may we attain to heaven” or “may heaven be our just reward as your ‘good and faithful servants’”.

The difference is that EP I refers to our merits in the present, while EP II looks towards our meriting eternal life at the end of our lives, having run the race and fought the good fight, and being shown to have lived worthy of the calling to which we were called.

EP III uses the word merito (“deservedly”) in reference to God: merito te laudat omnis a te condita creatura (“all you have created rightly gives you praise”).
 
By forgiving our sins, God makes us worthy to merit his kingdom. The merit is not something we have done, we merit it because of what God has done…
 
Good answers all - Thank you.
I especially like the links to the dictionaries and also the lesson in Latin…👍

I’ll be rereading all of these things (plus any additional responses) later when I have time to really digest it more.

Peace
James
 
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