The Significance of Eucharistic Prayer III

by Fr. John Granato  |  11/03/2024  |  Words from Fr. John

After spending a few weeks on the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), and having already mentioned Eucharistic Prayer II and how it was composed a Trastevere in Rome, I will move on to Eucharistic Prayer III.

This prayer was composed by Father Cipriano Vagaggini, a Benedictine and liturgical “expert” during the Second Vatican Council. He was not a fan of the Roman Canon and wanted it replaced, so he composed Eucharistic prayers III and IV. At the time, though, there were also other progressive theologians pushing their agenda on new compositions of Eucharistic prayers (also called anaphoras). At one time there were over two hundred of these prayers being used in the tumultuous years of the early 1970’s with bishops who were challenging the authority of Pope Paul VI. The pope eventually decreed that the new Roman Missal would have four Eucharistic prayers, but he then gave permission for three Eucharistic prayers for children (which, mercifully, are not in the third edition of the Roman Missal of 2011) and two prayers of reconciliation, which are in the current Roman Missal (and are usually used by priests during Lent). This third Eucharistic prayer is used very often, along with Eucharistic prayer II, mostly because it is shorter than the Roman Canon. Father Vagaggini was critical of the Roman canon for the lack of a Spirit focus, so when he composed Eucharistic Prayer III, he made sure to add many references to the Holy Spirit to showcase the role of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist. He used the Roman Canon as a basic model but then, according to him, perfected it by fixing the problems as he saw them. It is a better Eucharistic prayer than II because it does acknowledge explicitly that the Eucharist is still considered a sacrifice, and he does keep reference to at least one saint other than the Blessed Virgin Mary after the words of consecration (although this is still only an option to add the patron saint or the saint of the day). When I pray this Eucharistic prayer, I add either the saint of the day or (since we have two churches under the title and patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is already mentioned) I use the saints associated with the Immaculate Conception (Saint Joachim and Saint Anne) and one of the saints whose relics are in Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saint Cecelia, Saint Fulgentius, Saint Constantius and Saint John Vianney in the main altar and Saint Fulgentius, Saint Constantius and Saint Patrick in the altar of reservation). There is also a longer prayer to be used if the Eucharistic prayer is used for funerals when we commemorate the dead. With the new translation of 2011, this Eucharistic prayer benefitted from a more sacral language. God bless