The Eucharistic Prayer

1It is right and fitting, our God, to give you thanks unceasingly for all the benefits you have given us. First, because you sent us from heaven your holy Son, sharing your throne, your co-eternal Son, the divine Word. In these last days he came and took our humanity; the Word became flesh without undergoing change (John 1:14). Through the Holy Spirit he possessed human flesh and a rational soul, and everything that belongs to a human being, apart from sin. He did not dwell in some human being as a guest, but he himself, the divine Word, entirely perfect, was perfectly made flesh. He did not alter his humanity, and he is not two, but one king, one Christ, one.

2He is Lord in deity and in humanity, confirming the divine and human natures without confusion and without division, by divine signs and by human sufferings. When he was about to come to his voluntary, renowned, and life-giving death for us, he took bread in his holy and undefiled hands, presented it to you, God and Father, gave thanks, blessed it, sanctified it, and gave it to his disciples, to his holy ones.

3to the apostles, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body, which is being broken for you for the forgiveness of sins.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, having mixed it from two elements—from the fruit of the vine and water—sealed the cup of immortality, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is being poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

4May this bread be changed and become the body of Christ—a divine body, a body that brings salvation to souls and bodies. And may what has been mixed in this cup into one reality become the blood of Christ, the blood of the new covenant, blood that brings salvation to us. Grant this so that we may wholly share in your mysteries in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.