In my last post I wrote how the Mass calls us to a lifestyle of gratitude, thankful for the gifts God has given us in love. We hear in the opening Dialogue of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer the Priest say "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God." The People say "It is right and just." I wrote how then the Preface prays to God: "It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord."
What follows in the Preface is itself a thanksgiving to God which is why the Preface is also called the Thanksgiving. What this Preface does is give the reasons why we thank God, for what we thank God. We must also understand that the Priest is praying both for the Church and with the Church and also proclaiming the reasons for thanksgiving. Notice that after the Opeing Dialogue of the Eucharistic Prayer, which is an exchange between the Priest and People, the Preface next speaks to God (as "Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God").
The Thanksgiving Preface follows the ancient Jewish pattern of prayer where (1) one invokes God, then (2) gratefully proclaims what God has done, typically in creation and in the saving deeds of God and then (3) makes petition to God. The Jewish pattern of prayer, then, first praises and thanks God and then asks for something.
In the Thanksgiving of the Preface we (the Church) go on to state the reasons we thank God in this Eucharist (root word means "thanksgiving"). I also wrote last week a suggestion in preparing for Sunday Mass that we make a list (on paper, or digitally or mentally) of the things we want to thank God for in the Thanksgiving of the Eucharist.
When the Thanksgiving is prayed in the Preface, we unite our personal thanks (silently) to the "cosmic thanksgiving" of Christ himself. We join our thanks to the Liturgy’s thanksgiving typically for creation and for the Paschal Mystery of Christ. The Paschal Mystery refers to the entire life of Christ lived for us and now in us: "Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us." (Catechism #521)
You may read more about the Paschal Mystery HERE, but the essence of the Mystery is the Death and Resurrection of Christ and his Coming again in glory.
Consider this Preface of Eucharistic Prayer II which focuses upon both creation and the Paschal Mystery:
"It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father most holy,
through your beloved Son, Jesus Christ,
your Word through whom you made all things,
whom you sent as our Savior and Redeemer,
incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin.
Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people,
he stretched out his hands as he endured his Passion,
so as to break the bonds of death and manifest the resurrection."
Common Preface V (one of the prefaces that can be used on Week days) states the Paschal Mystery in its simplest summary:
"His Death we celebrate in love,
his Resurrection we confess with living faith,
and his Coming in glory we await with unwavering hope."
The Eucharistic Preface sometimes focuses on some aspect of the Paschal Mystery/life of Christ which is celebrated in one of the Liturgical Seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter. For example, this is a Christmas Preface we pray:
"For in the mystery of the Word made flesh
a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind,
so that, as we recognize in him God made visible,
we may be caught up through him in love of things invisible."
By having our often humble thanks united to the Great Thanksgiving of the Eucharist, we are "elevated," our hearts truly are lifted up the Lord, and we are given a very dignified role of joining heaven’s eternal Thanksgiving as we will see in next week’s post about the Sanctus.
Next Week: Joining the Heavenly Liturgy in the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) of the Eucharistic Preface.
