page_title: Anaphora (liturgy)
section_title: Elements
hierarchical_section_title: Anaphora (liturgy) / Elements
context_page_description: The Anaphora is the most solemn part of the Divine Liturgy, or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, during which the offerings of bread and wine are consecrated as the body and blood of Christ. This is the usual name for this part of the Liturgy in Greek-speaking Eastern Christianity. In western Christian traditions which have a comparable rite, the Anaphora is more often called the Eucharistic Prayer for the four modern anaphoras in the Latin liturgy, with the first anaphora having the additional name of the Roman Canon. When the Roman Rite had a single Eucharistic Prayer, it was called the Canon of the Mass.
  "Anaphora" is a Greek word meaning a "carrying back" or a "carrying up", and so an "offering". In the sacrificial language of the Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, προσφέρειν is used of the offerer's bringing the victim to the altar, and ἀναφέρειν is used of the priest's offering up the selected portion upon the altar.
context_section_description: To describe the structure of the Anaphoras as it became standardized from the 4th century, we can look at the structure of the anaphoras in the Antiochene (or "West Syrian") family of liturgies, which display an order and logic that finds no equal elsewhere. This structure is still valid, with some significant variations typical of each rite, for the Catholic Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Church, while it was modified, both in the pattern and in the underlying theology, during the Protestant Reformation. Beginning with the Oxford Movement of the 1840s and after the Liturgical Reform Movement of the 1950s, a systematic examination of historic anaphoras began and this in turn has caused the reform of many Eucharistic prayers within mainline Protestant denominations.
  The structure of the standardized 4th century Antiochene anaphora, which is placed after the offertory and the Creed and comes before the Lord's Prayer, the Elevation and the Communion rites, can be summarized as follows:
  Sursum Corda or Opening Dialogue: it is the introductory dialogue that opens with a liturgical greeting by the priest (for instance, "The Lord be with you" in the Roman Rite, or "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" in the Byzantine Rite) and the response of the congregation or choir. Classic call and response ties together the response of the priest and congregation to the Glory of God. Then the priest exhorts those participating in the liturgy to lift up their hearts. When they express their agreement ("We lift them up to the Lord"), he then introduces the great theme of thanksgiving, in Greek εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), saying: "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.";
  Preface: is the great prayer of thanksgiving for the work of Salvation or for some special aspect of it;
  Sanctus: is a hymn of praise adapted from Isaiah 6:3 beginning Holy, Holy, Holy immediately followed by the Benedictus taken from Matthew 21:9. This hymn is usually introduced by the expression of the desire of the community to unite itself with the heavenly Angelic liturgy; it also follows the words of Christ, taken from Mt 23:39: "For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord", itself being a quotation of Psalm 118:26.
  Post-Sanctus: is a prayer that links the Sanctus with the following part. It can be very short or resume the great theme of thanksgiving, giving ground for the following requests.
  Institution narrative: is an account of the Last Supper, in which are pronounced the Words of Institution spoken by Jesus Christ, changing the bread and wine into his Body and Blood.
  Anamnesis: is the statement in which the Church refers to the memorial character of the Eucharist itself and/or to the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.
  Oblation: is the offering to the Lord of the sacrifice of the Eucharistic bread and wine and of the prayers and thanksgiving of faithfuls.
  Epiclesis: is the "invocation" or "calling down from on high" by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit (or the power of His blessing or Christ in some early texts) upon the Eucharistic bread and wine;
  Intercessions: is the prayer, sometimes long, in which the Church asks God to help all her members, living and dead, and all the humanity because of the grace given by the Eucharist. In this section there is usually the request to God to grant to the believers the same glory given to Mary and to the saints. The list of the living people who are commemorated (diptychs) includes generally the name of the current pope, patriarch, bishop recognized by the community;
  Doxology: is a solemn hymn of praises to the Trinity.
  This structure can have variations in liturgical families different from the Antiochene one: in the East Syriac Rites the Epiclesis is just before the final doxology and in one case the Institution narrative is missing; the Intercessions can be found after the Preface in the Alexandrian Rite and even before the Sursum Corda in the Mo
caption: 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary
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