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Formed in Christ

Friday, March 13, 2026Faith

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While having some inspiration from other Eucharistic Prayers and a certain Roman Canon style, it really is an original composition.

Father Robert M.
O'Grady

The work of the reform of the liturgy entrusted to Pope St. Paul VI continued with the expansion of the Eucharistic Prayer available for the new Roman Missal. The sainted pope was very involved in the process, whether of adaptation or editing, as we saw with Prayer I and II. He encouraged Group X to consider writing an entirely new prayer, again, remaining involved in the whole process.
Pope Paul had previously been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan. He had succeeded a Benedictine liturgical scholar, Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, whose attention to the liturgical life of that great archdiocese had prepared it for the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
There is a guiding principle regarding liturgical prayers -- anonymity of authors. The process usually involves an initial author who submits the composition to an editorial committee. Often the prayer undergoes substantial change, sometimes not.
That process was employed for this prayer, with the added level of intense review and revision by Pope Paul VI. If any prayer revision in this process shows the pope's personal and attentive involvement, it is this prayer.
However, someone started the process. A humorous tale says that the outline of this prayer was done on a paper napkin at pranzo (lunch) in a trattoria (cafe) outside St. Peter's. Some latch onto this as an indication of what they aver as sloppy work. Others say, so what? It was only an outline.

Another, and more probable, scenario for the composition is that this prayer is the result of an internal competition. Six members of Group X each composed a draft of a Eucharistic Prayer. The drafts were then submitted to the entire membership of Group X. Each was reviewed and discussed during several meetings of the group. One of the six was selected as what we might call the working document. This text was subjected to revision, editing, and detailed attention, including a review with suggestions by Pope Paul VI.
Two members of Group X, namely Father Johannes Wagner, a priest of the ancient German Diocese of Trier, and Dom Cipriano Vagaggini, OSB, an Italian Benedictine on the faculty of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at San Anselmo, Rome, were most likely the co-authors of the draft. Boston's own Father Frederick R. McManus was a consultor of that group and was a close collaborator of both Vagaggini and Wagner.
The authors did not create this prayer out of nothing; this prayer has no parallel in any collection, ancient, old, or new Eucharistic Prayers. So, it is truly brand new. The authors were obviously very familiar with many Eucharistic Prayers, so that guidance was in the back of their minds. They also had the additional support of the pope, who wanted original compositions as well as adaptations and edited texts of older prayers.
One of the specifics for the composers and editors was that the prayer would not have its own invariable or suggested preface. That form came from the Roman Canon. Pope Paul was clear that this new prayer should have flexibility in its use. It was to be used as an alternative on Sundays, solemnities, and feasts that did not have their own preface. Examples of these would be Sundays of Ordinary Time, Sundays of Easter after the Octave, and Sundays of Lent and Advent. In other words, it could be widely used.
Although this prayer was foreseen as an alternative to the Roman Canon for Sundays and other festive celebrations, it also was readily adaptable for use on weekdays and at Masses for the dead, especially Masses of Christian Burial.
Thus, this prayer is probably the second most commonly employed of the four in our present Roman Missal, exceeded only by Eucharistic Prayer II.
While having some inspiration from other Eucharistic Prayers and a certain Roman Canon style, it really is an original composition.
Part of this popularity is related to the progression within the prayer from its post-Holy, Holy, Holy, to the doxology at the end. It seems to flow naturally and smoothly from the transition paragraph after the Holy, Holy, Holy, to the narrative of the institution, the words of consecration, and intercessions, both those that are used at every Mass where this is prayed, and by the intercessions that can be used on specific occasions, especially sacraments or sacramentals celebrated at Mass.
One of the historians of this phase of the liturgical reform, reviewing the history of this prayer, the various experts involved in that process, and especially that of Pope St. Paul VI, averred, "When this canon finally named, considering the involvement of the pope, they will really have no choice but to call it the 'Canon of Paul VI.'"