Anaphora

In Catholic teaching the term anaphora denotes the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of thanksgiving and consecration that lies at the heart and summit of the Mass. In the preface the assembly gives thanks to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit for creation, redemption, and sanctification, joining the unending praise of the angels and saints (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 78). The prayer then unfolds according to the Church’s ancient pattern, including thanksgiving, acclamation, invocation of the Holy Spirit, narrative of institution and consecration, memorial of Christ’s passion, offering of the sacrifice, intercessions for the living and the dead, and concluding doxology, so that the faithful enter sacramentally into the one high priestly action of Christ (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 79; Sacramentum Caritatis 146). The Catechism teaches that with the Eucharistic Prayer we come to the heart and summit of the celebration and that in it the Church renders Eucharistic worship as true sacrifice and spiritual food (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1352). In this central action the entire Body of Christ offers itself to the Father, is unified in the one sacrifice, and is nourished for mission.

Back to Dictionary of Theology