The Anaphora

The heart of the Divine Liturgy: the great Eucharistic prayer, the anaphora, in which the Church gives thanks, joins the angels in the Sanctus, recalls the Lord’s institution, offers “Thine own of Thine own,” and invokes the Holy Spirit upon the gifts. This section treats the anaphora in its movements and the East–West debate over where the gifts are consecrated.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Overview

The anaphora (Greek anaphora, “offering-up”) is the great prayer of thanksgiving and consecration — the central and most sacred act of the Liturgy, from which everything before it flows toward and everything after it flows from. It opens with the dialogue “Lift up your hearts” (the Sursum corda), proceeds through the thanksgiving to the Father, the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”), the institution narrative (the Lord’s words at the Supper), the anamnesis and the offering (“Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee”), the epiclesis (the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts), and the intercessions and commemorations. This section presents the prayer as a whole and then treats, from both sides, the long-standing East–West question of the moment of consecration — the epiclesis of the Spirit as against the words of institution.

Files

File Description
the-eucharistic-prayer.md The Sursum corda, the thanksgiving, the Sanctus, the institution narrative, the anamnesis, and “Thine own of Thine own”
the-epiclesis-and-the-consecration.md The epiclesis as the consummation in the Byzantine tradition vs the Latin words of institution — the historic East/West debate (§4 both sides)

See Also