The Structure Of Table Worship In The Early Church

The oldest prayer of Thanksgiving is found in Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition, dated about a.d. 215. Because Hippolytus remembered this prayer from his youth, it is generally thought the prayer reaches back to 150. Through this prayer we can see the developed parts of the ancient eucharistic prayer. Consequently, this prayer has served as a model for the contemporary restructuring of the prayers said at the Table.

The Text of Hippolytus ORDER TEXT COMMENTARY Dominus vobiscum The Lord be with you And all shall say: And with your spirit.   Sursum Corda Lift up your hearts. Worship ascends into heaven We have them with the Lord around the throne of God. Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is fitting and right.   Preface Prayer We render thanks to you The preface to the prayer of O God, through your beloved thanksgiving is a proclamation. child Jesus Christ, whom in the last times you sent to us as savior and redeemer and angel of your will; …   Sanctus (Not found in Hippolytus) In the Sanctus, the church joins with the angels and archangels in the heavenly song.   Prayer of … who is your inseparable Word, The prayer of thanksgiving is a Thanksgiving through whom you made all recall of God's mighty acts in things, and in whom you are history, particularly God's act well pleased. You sent Him of salvation in Jesus Christ. from heaven into the Virgin's Note the creedal nature of the womb; and, conceived in the the prayer as it recounts creation, womb, he was made flesh and incarnation, death, resurrection, was manifested as your Son, overthrow of evil, and being born of the Holy Spirit and establishment of the church. the Virgin. Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people, he stretched out his hands when he should suffer, that he might release from suffering those who have believed in you. And when he was betrayed to voluntary suffering that he might destroy death, and break the bonds of the devil, and tread down hell, and shine upon the righteous, and fix the limit, and manifest the resurrection, …   Words of Institution … he took bread and gave thanks The repetition of the words of to you, saying, "Take, eat, this Jesus lie at the heart of the is my body which shall be broken Table action. for you." Likewise also the cup saying, "This is my blood, which is shed for you; when you do this you make my remembrance."   Anamnesis Remembering therefore his The word "anamnesis" means (Remembrance) death and resurrection, we offer to recall and refers not to a you the bread and the cup, giving mental memory, but a divine you thanks becuase you have action in which Christ, the head held us worthy to stand before of the church, is remembered you and minister to you. with the body.   Offering The offering is the offering of the church's praise, which ministers to God.   Epiclesis And we ask that you send your The Holy Spirit is invoked so that Holy Spirit upon the offering of those who partake may be your holy church; that, gathering confirmed in truth by the work them into one, you would grant to of the Spirit. all who partake of the holy thing (to partake) for the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the confirmation of faith in truth; …   Closing Doxology … that we may praise and glorify The prayer ends with a trinitarian you through your child Jesus Christ, doxology. through whom be glory and honor to you, to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, both now and to the ages of ages. (Amen.) (R. C D. Jasper and G. J. Cunning, eds., Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed, 2d ed. [New York: Oxford University Press, 1980], 22–23)