[Magdalen] Epiclesis.

[sally.davies at gmail.com]

This got me curious, David! I checked and we have something of the sort in
all four Eucharistic prayers. The first three have it after the Sanctus,
the Fourth Eucharistic prayer a bit later. The Fourth version:

"We ask you to send your Holy Spirit upon the offering of your holy Church.
Gather into one all who
share in these sacred mysteries, filling them with the Holy Spirit and
confirming their faith in the truth,
that together we may praise you and give you glory through your servant,
Jesus Christ"

The First Eucharistic Prayer has the words:

"Hear us Father, through your Son Christ our Lord; through him accept our
offering of thanks and praise,
and send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts of bread and wine so
that they may be to us his
body and his blood"

There are slight differences in each version which might mean something to
a liturgy expert, but to me they all seem fair and square within the
Anglican tradition of "consubstantiation". There's no implication that
Christ is being re-sacrificed but neither is it a memorial as such; though
all go on to include a Scriptural memorial paragraph, "Who, in the same
night that he was betrayed, etc".

Very interesting. I appreciate your interest in this and have taken to
heart the discussion we had some years back about participation in the
Eucharist being timeless. Recently I was studying Luke 22 with a Bible
Study group and realised that the words of Jesus in that passage, "I shall
not eat of [this Passover) again, until the Kingdom of God is fulfilled"
could be heard as a promise to meet with us as we share in the Eucharist,,
as well as looking forward to the Great Supper of the Lamb.

BTW speaking of Catholics, the website I used for that study and will use
again as it was very helpful, was the US Conference of Catholic Bishops,
www.usccb.org. I think their text is the Contemporary English Version and
there are some useful scholarly notes and cross references.

Sally D



On Wed, 15 Apr 2015 at 9:11 PM Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> Elsewhere there was a discussion with input from several conservative
> Roman Catholics questioning the validity of the current RC Ordinary
> Form Liturgy (the "Novus Ordo") which has been the norm since  Vatican-2.
> These complaints always seem to center on "too much memorialism" and
> not "enough Sacrifice".
>
> I am amused by this attitude since there is a glaring absence of an
> epiclesis, in the Eucharistic Prayer ("Canon") where the Holy Spirit is
> invoked  to
> validate the Sacrament and also to bless the faithful and ensure their
> full participation, in the old Latin Rite (the "Tridentine"/Extraordinary
> Form
> of the RC Liturgy).
>
> There are a couple of places in that Tridentine Liturgy where experts
> say an epiclesis is "inferred" but not outright stated.  This is in
> contrast
> to all the Eastern Rites that always contain an epiclesis.
>
> So it seems Tridentines have little justification to point fingers at  the
> current Novus Ordo Liturgy, in which a complete epiclesis has been
> placed into all four Eucharistic Canons.
>
> I'm not sure that ++Cranmer had a full epiclesis in the First and  Second
> Prayer Books of Edward VI or that there was one in the later CofE 1662,
> so long the standard in so many Anglican jurisdictions.
>
> However, there is an epiclesis, in all the Eucharistic Prayers of TEC  '79
> Prayer Book.
>
> Even the Lutherans have added an epiclesis to their bare "Verbum" of
> the Eucharistic Prayer (ELCA).
>
>
> David Strang.
>