The Eucharistic Prayer

The anaphora is the great Eucharistic prayer at the center of the Liturgy. This file walks its movements in order: the opening dialogue (“Lift up your hearts”), the thanksgiving to the Father, the Sanctus that joins the Church to the angels, the institution narrative recalling the Lord’s words at the Supper, and the anamnesis with the offering “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for all.”

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

The Opening Dialogue

The anaphora begins with a dialogue between priest and people that is among the oldest fixed texts of Christian worship, attested in substantially its present form already in the third century (cf. the Apostolic Tradition’s eucharistic dialogue; Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.4–5, expounding it). The priest calls the assembly to reverence — “Let us stand well, let us stand with fear, let us attend, that we may offer the holy oblation in peace” — and the people answer, “A mercy of peace, a sacrifice of praise.” Then follows the threefold dialogue:

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (the apostolic blessing of 2 Corinthians 13:14) — “And with thy spirit.”
“Let us lift up our hearts” (the Sursum corda) — “We lift them up unto the Lord.”
“Let us give thanks unto the Lord” — “It is meet and right to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in essence and undivided.”

The dialogue sets the register of everything that follows: the Church lifts up its heart from earth to heaven and gives thanks — for the whole prayer is eucharistia, thanksgiving (Schmemann, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom, SVS Press, 1988, ch. 9, “The Sacrament of Thanksgiving”; Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.4–5).

The Thanksgiving

The priest begins the prayer proper by giving thanks to God the Father — in the Chrysostom anaphora briefly, in the Basil anaphora at great length — for his very being and for the whole work of creation and redemption: that God brought us from non-existence into being, raised us up when we had fallen, and did not cease to do all things until he had brought us to heaven (Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom; and, more fully, Anaphora of St. Basil the Great; Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy, SVS Press, 1990, ch. 8). This thanksgiving is the theological ground of the Eucharist: the Church offers because it has first received; the sacrifice is a return to God of God’s own gifts, made in gratitude (Schmemann, The Eucharist, 1988, ch. 9). The Basil anaphora in particular is one of the great doctrinal texts of the Church, a comprehensive recital of salvation history from creation through the Incarnation to the redemption (the two liturgies and their authors).

The Sanctus

The thanksgiving rises to name the angelic hosts who unceasingly praise God, and at the mention of the seraphim the people take up their song — the Sanctus: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” The hymn joins the vision of Isaiah, who heard the seraphim cry “Holy, Holy, Holy” before the throne (Isaiah 6:1–3), to the acclamation of the crowds at the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9; Psalm 117/118:26). Here the claim of the Cherubic Hymn is realized: the earthly Church truly enters the worship of heaven, singing the very song the angels sing (Germanus, On the Divine Liturgy, trans. Paul Meyendorff, SVS Press, 1984, on the Sanctus; Cabasilas, A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, trans. Hussey and McNulty, SPCK, 1960, ch. 30). The priest continues the prayer after the Sanctus (the post-Sanctus), passing from the praise of God’s holiness to the remembrance of the incarnate economy of the Son.

The Institution Narrative

At the center of the anaphora the priest recalls the Lord’s own act and words at the Last Supper — the institution narrative (Greek verba, the “words of the Lord”). He recounts how Christ, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, gave thanks, blessed, broke, and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take, eat, this is my Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins,” and likewise the cup, saying “Drink of it, all of you; this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins” — the people answering “Amen” to each (Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom; cf. Matthew 26:26–28; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25). The narrative grounds the Church’s Eucharist in the Lord’s own command, “This do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24–25). Whether these words are themselves the moment at which the gifts are consecrated, or whether the consecration is consummated in the epiclesis that follows, is the subject of a long East–West debate treated in the companion file (the epiclesis and the consecration); the Orthodox tradition holds that the whole anaphora consecrates, with the epiclesis as its culminating moment (Schmemann, The Eucharist, 1988, ch. 11; Cabasilas, Commentary, chs. 27–30).

The Anamnesis and the Offering

There follows the anamnesis (Greek anamnēsis, “remembrance”) — the fulfilment of the Lord’s “do this in remembrance of me.” The priest, “remembering” the whole saving economy, names its decisive acts: “Remembering this saving commandment, and all that came to pass for our sake: the Cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming again” (Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom). The “remembrance” here is not a mere recollection of a past event but a liturgical anamnesis that makes present the one saving reality of Christ — including, strikingly, his “second coming,” which is remembered as already accomplished from the standpoint of the Kingdom into which the Liturgy has entered (Schmemann, The Eucharist, 1988, ch. 10, “The Sacrament of Remembrance”; the future recalled as present).

Then comes the offering, at the very heart of the prayer. The priest, lifting the diskos and chalice crosswise above the altar, exclaims: “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for all” (Greek Ta sa ek tōn sōn soi prospheromen kata panta kai dia panta) — and the people answer, “We praise thee, we bless thee, we give thanks unto thee, O Lord, and we pray unto thee, O our God.” The words confess the whole meaning of the Eucharistic sacrifice: the Church offers to God nothing of its own devising but God’s own gifts — “Thine own of Thine own” — the bread and wine that God gave, which stand for the whole creation and for Christ himself, offered back to the Father in thanksgiving (Schmemann, The Eucharist, 1988, ch. 10; Cabasilas, Commentary, ch. 32). This offering is the one sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all on the Cross (Hebrews 10:10–14), now made present and offered by the Church — not a new immolation but the Church’s entrance into the eternal self-offering of the Lamb “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8; cf. the prayer of the Cherubikon, “thou art the offerer and the offered”). With this offering made, the prayer moves to its consummation in the invocation of the Holy Spirit (the epiclesis and the consecration).

References

Schmemann, Alexander. The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1988. (The anaphora as thanksgiving, remembrance, and offering; chs. 9–11.)
Cabasilas, Nicholas. A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Hussey and McNulty. London: SPCK, 1960. (The dialogue, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis, and offering; chs. 26–33.)
Cyril of Jerusalem. Mystagogical Catechesis 5.4–8. Trans. NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7. (The Sursum corda, the Sanctus, and the anaphora expounded.)
Germanus of Constantinople. On the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Paul Meyendorff. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1984. (The Sanctus and the angelic worship.)
Wybrew, Hugh. The Orthodox Liturgy. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1990. (The Chrysostom and Basil anaphoras.)
The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Basil the Great (euchologion; Eng. in Hapgood, Service Book).
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:14; Isaiah 6:1–3; Matthew 21:9; 26:26–28; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25; Hebrews 10:10–14; Psalm 117/118:26; Revelation 13:8.