Basic Texts for the Roman Catholic Eucharist
THE EUCHARISTIC PRAYERS
These webpages are intended to help you become more familiar with the various texts used during the "Mass" or "Eucharistic Liturgy" of the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, there are several different "Eucharistic Prayers" that the presider (the priest or bishop) may choose near the middle of the Mass. Each of these has a similar structure and each contains some words that are identical in nearly all of the Eucharistic Prayers (especially the "Eucharistic Acclamations" sung or spoken by all the people, and the "Words of Institution" recited by the presider, which include the words spoken by Jesus himself at the Last Supper.)
To help you see both the similarity in structure and the differences between the various Eucharistic Prayers (both in wording and in length), they are printed in parallel columns on the following pages. Texts and responses sung or spoken by all the people are indicated in bold type. The "words of institution" are printed in dark red. Some of the texts spoken by the presider are optional for certain Masses or liturgical seasons, as indicated in small italics.
Texts from the Third Edition of the Roman Missal (new English Translation, in use as of Nov. 27, 2011):
Texts from the Sacramentary (English Translations of the first edition of the Roman Missal, used from 1970 to 2011):
Related Resources:
Return to the Main Page on The Order of Mass.