What is the Canon of the Mass?
The Roman Canon — the great prayer of the consecration, unbroken since St. Gregory
The Canon is the central prayer of the Mass — the great Eucharistic Prayer in which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. In the Traditional Latin Mass, it is called the Roman Canon, and it is one of the oldest continuously prayed prayers in the Catholic Church.
The Canon is the central prayer of the Mass — the great Eucharistic Prayer in which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. In the Traditional Latin Mass, it is called the Roman Canon, and it is one of the oldest continuously prayed prayers in the Catholic Church.
Its substance dates to the fourth century. St. Ambrose of Milan, writing in the 380s, quotes language nearly identical to what the priest still prays today at the Consecration. Pope St. Gregory the Great gave the Canon its substantially fixed form by the year 600. From that point until 1969, every Latin-Rite priest prayed essentially the same Canon every day of his priestly life. To pray the Roman Canon is to pray with St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, and Padre Pio.
The Roman Canon is theologically dense. It names the Saints by name — the Apostles, the early martyrs, John the Baptist, the Mother of God. It explicitly calls the Mass a sacrifice (“hanc oblationem”, “this offering”), invokes the patriarchs Abel, Abraham, and Melchisedech as types of Christ’s sacrifice, and asks God to receive the offering as He received those of the just. It prays for the dead. It does not adapt to taste.
In the Novus Ordo, the Roman Canon is one option among four (now more, with various “eucharistic prayers for special occasions”). It is rarely used. Most Catholics have never heard it. In the TLM, it is the Canon. The priest prays it silently from the Sanctus to the Pater Noster — the most sacred minutes of the entire liturgy.
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