Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation

…you do not cease to spur us on to possess a more abundant life and, being rich in mercy, you constantly offer pardon and call on sinners to trust in your forgiveness alone…

… freed at last from the wound of corruption and made fully into a new creation…

…for though the human race is divided by dissension and discord…you change our hearts to prepare them for reconciliation…hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect…

​…may he make your Church a sign of unity and an instrument of your peace among all people… 

​Recent events in our world – the execution of those on death row and fierce debates about the death penalty, or the return of young Australians who have defected to overseas terrorist groups, for example – have challenged Christians to reflect again on the value of mercy, of forgiveness, of reconciliation. We have witnessed people who work for peace and justice, seeking to bring about harmony in the midst of division.

The proclamation by Pope Francis of a Holy Year of Mercy (8 December 2015 – 20 November 2016) was a wake-up call for the Church to renew itself to be a community of mercy and compassion in the midst of the challenges of the world.

The words at the beginning of this article are taken from the two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation. They echo the call of Pope Francis to the Year of Mercy and will provide an excellent liturgical resource to highlight this theme. The Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation were actually promulgated by Pope Paul VI in the Holy Year of 1975 on the theme of ‘reconciliation’. He wrote that a special Eucharistic Prayer seemed to be particularly useful and appropriate since aspects of reconciliation reach their high point in the thanksgiving and blessing of the Eucharistic Prayer.

In the decade between the Second Vatican Council and 1975, there had been a proliferation of Eucharistic Prayers freely-composed in different countries for various themes, events and seasons. (The four Eucharistic Prayers for Use in Masses for Various Needs date from a Swiss Synod of 1974.) Annibale Bugnini, in his final months as secretary to the Congregation for Divine Worship, responded to the desire for additional texts for the Eucharist by providing three Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children and these two for Reconciliation, but there was much concern within the Congregation that local conferences of bishops did not have adequate oversight of their composition and that the Holy See did not give them final approval. Effectively the departure of Bugnini from the Congregation in 1975 put an end to the approval of new Eucharistic Prayers.

We were blessed however to have these texts available for use in the forthcoming Holy Year of Mercy. The Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation I and II are now printed in the Roman Missal alongside the eleven other Eucharistic Prayers. They may be used in Masses during the season of Lent and also in Masses in which the mystery of reconciliation is conveyed to the people of God in the context of other needs and occasions, such as Masses for Reconciliation, for Promoting Harmony, for the Preservation of Peace and Justice, In Time of War or Civil Disturbance, For the Forgiveness of Sins, For Charity. These texts too will be most helpful in our Year of Mercy.

When Paul VI announced the 1975 Holy Year, he explained that it was to be a time ‘devoted to the renewal of humanity and their reconciliation to God’. Today, forty years later, we again stress the importance of a conversion of mind and heart. Such conversion leads to social reconciliation: in the individual, in the family and in a nation, and this renewal is to be a leaven of peace and unity. The shift from ‘reconciliation’ to ‘mercy’ for the new Holy Year recognises more strongly that the process begins with God’s grace. It is God’s mercy which calls forth conversion as our response. We learn to show mercy and forgive because we ourselves have been forgiven.

In the Eucharistic Prayers, ‘reconciliation’ emerges from the theological concepts of memorial, thanksgiving and intercession found in all the Eucharistic Prayers. These Eucharistic Prayers are not ‘about’ reconciliation. Rather they focus on reconciliation and conversion of heart as the lens through which to remember the gift of saving mercy shown us in Christ, the mercy which draws all humanity into the paschal mystery of Christ.

The Preface of each prayer weaves together the idea of covenant and reconciliation and has many biblical images: an ever more abundant life (Jn 10:10); rich in mercy (Eph 2:4). Reconciliation happens when God’s initiative reaches out to human persons and they respond in faith and openness to the presence of the Spirit in that encounter. The individual person is reconciled to God, and all of us who may be divided against each other can be reconciled; we become ‘ambassadors of reconciliation toward others’ (2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Colossians 1:19-22). So reconciliation expressed in the Prayer is more than just individual forgiveness; it touches all of humanity. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we become signs of God’s reconciling grace at work whenever we seek peace in the midst of division and disharmony,…by your Spirit you move hearts that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries join hands and people seek to meet together.

The Eucharistic Prayers place the ministry of reconciliation at the very heart of what we believe as Catholics. It is not an ‘optional extra’ to which some enthusiasts respond. In Christ, the human and the divine are one and the human race is reconciled with God. Reconciliation is at the heart of the mission of God, the mission of evangelisation, the mission of the gospel. It defines how the disciple of Christ lives in the world…as they partake of this one Bread and one Chalice, may they be gathered into one Body in Christ, who heals every division… There is a clear connection between the transformation by the Holy Spirit of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ and the transformation of the faithful to become the Body of Christ in the world. The Eucharist sends us out to live the gospel, to be reconcilers and peacemakers, to be gifts of mercy and compassion.

Thus Eucharist is the sacrament of reconciliation par excellence. Its celebration assists us as the worshipping assembly to call to mind our sinfulness and our need for forgiveness; we offer ourselves to God with Christ in his perfect offering and God transforms us anew into Christ’s body and blood, as we are drawn deeper into the paschal mystery of Christ. The Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation praise God’s abundant mercy and name for us the cry of the human heart for peace and reconciliation. We acknowledge our human frailty but we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit to ‘move human hearts’ so that God’s free gift of love and peace can wash over us.

The call for the Church to be an instrument of peace is strong…may he make your Church a sign of unity and an instrument of your peace among all people… The desire for unity and peace is a constant cry in the midst of a suffering world. Unity and peace are possible in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When we pray these Eucharistic Prayers, we are challenged to examine our relationships, to acknowledge our failures, to listen to the call of the gospel, and to seek out what stops us from a loving communion with each other. They invite us to move beyond unyielding ideals to find mercy and forgiveness. They stop us from being judgemental.

​We bring to these prayers the real events and situations of our world. Family issues and challenges, the plight of refugees, violence in our world, all these are bathed in the mercy of God. For reconciliation is always a gift of God’s Holy Spirit. As disciples of Jesus, we constantly seek reconciliation so that Jesus’ mission of mercy is continued wherever we are called to go. As Pope Francis said in his 2013 Easter message: Let us be renewed by God's mercy... let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.

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This article was originally published in Liturgy News ​Vol 45(2) June 2015. Reprinted with permission.