Eucharistic Prayer and Theology
2002 Reston, Virginia
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2002
Robert J. Daly, S.J. (professor of theology at Boston College)
Seminar Participants 2002
Horace T. Allen, Jr., Patrick Byrne, Timothy J. Crouch, O.S.L., Everett A. Diederich, S.J., John Foley, S.J., Mark A. Garrett, O.S.A., Barbara Thorington Green, Jerome M. Hall, S.J., Hoyt L. Hickman, John Kroeger, Cheryl Magrini, Charles S. Pottie, S.J., John Barry Ryan, Leo Ryska, O.S.B., Amy C. Schifrin, Geoffrey Wainwright, Allison Werner, Stephen B. Wilson, Nancy L. Woodworth-Hill
Seminar Report 2002
The seminar discussed its material in this order:
- Daly: “Sacrifice Revisited: Trinitarian and Liturgical Perspectives”;
- Schifrin: several musical settings for EPs and propers from several feasts, taken from her Lectionary Worship Workbook, Series II, Cycle A;
- Pottie: a discussion of some of the new acclamations being proposed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops for insertion within EP II and EP IV;
- Green: presentation and discussion of her “Eucharistic Prayer from the Words and Thoughts of Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Gertrude of Helfta, Catherine of Siena”;
- Woodworth-Hill: discussion of her study “On the Trinity in the Eucharistic Prayer: A Study of the Patterns of Nominal and Pronominal Forms in the ECUSA Rite Two and Alternative Eucharistic Prayers”;
- Hall: discussion of the recent official RC acknowledgment of the validity of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari even though it has no explicit institution narrative;
- Crouch: his new version of “A Eucharistic Prayer in Long Meter” plus a new post-Communion prayer to go with it;
- Daly: presention of his “A Prayer of Blessing, Praise, and Thanksgiving” designed for use within an interreligious Jewish-Christian wedding ceremony;
- Ryan: discussion of his draft, “Eros and Agape: Love in the Eucharistic Prayer for Weddings.”
Daly’s paper “Sacrifice Revisited” functioned as a theological prelude. The trinitarian grounding of sacrifice was strongly welcomed by the seminar. But the question was raised whether this approach made atonement too Abelardian and too neglectful of the legitimate Anselmian insights. More clarification was also requested regarding the role of the Holy Spirit and regarding the meaning of “us” (i.e., the ritual agents and beneficiaries).
As we then (beginning with selections from Schifrin’s extensive work) moved on to the other presentations and discussions, these became increasingly rich and complementary. The different presentations and their accompanying discussions felicitously cross-fertilized and fed on each other. We continued to explore new eucharistic prayers and the challenges of setting them and/or their parts to music (Pottie, Crouch). But most notable and fruitful was the development of the trajectory begun last year by Wainwright and Westerfield Tucker with the Methodist EP they assembled from the various hymns of the Wesleys. This alerted the seminar to the riches to be uncovered by exploring the eucharistic experiences of particular individuals, groups, and traditions as e.g., can be seen in the work presented this year by Green and Schifrin and, to a lesser extent, by Woodworth-Hill, Crouch, and Daly. Plans for next year suggest an exciting continuance of this trajectory.
Connected with this, Green’s editing of the words and thoughts of the women medieval mystics into a long EP (resource-rich, but in its length performatively unwieldy) and Daly’s Jewish-Christian EP (that is, of course, not a Eucharist in the full Christian sense) led the seminar to highlight the distinction between a eucharistic prayer (in the full, ritual sense of the word) and “eucharistic praying” (i.e., not a Eucharist but very “eucharistic” because of its genre and structure, its spirituality, its theology, etc.). The significance of “eucharistic praying” for private and public praying and meditating and for retreats, etc., was immediately obvious.
Much of the seminar’s discussion focused on the meaning and implications of words and language. This was especially true regarding the work of Woodworth-Hill, of Green, and of Ryan. Regarding the work of the latter two, the distinction between the agapaic and the erotic came to the fore, along with the discovery of how hard it is to find the authentically erotic (i.e., the erotic that is good and holy) in the public prayer of the Church.
Looking ahead to next year, nine members volunteered contributions that assure the continued development of the seminar’s trajectory.