The Eucharistic Prayer: A User's Guide

We somehow think that during the eucharistic prayer at Mass we are expected to be quiet, prayerful, and attentive-if we can be, with our children or other neighbors in the pews distracting us. In this inviting book Barry Hudock shows us that the eucharistic prayer is indeed the most dynamic and explosive" moment of Christian worship-in fact, of Christian life. Hudock takes us back to the beginnings of formal eucharistic worship in the early church, then forward to Vatican II and beyond, unpacking and exploring the eucharistic prayers old and new in words and concepts accessible to all of us. He also offers us, as the fruit of the journey, a set of points for a eucharistic prayer spirituality to prepare us for the explosion into life that is the whole purpose of our being.

Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin has been on the faculty of The Catholic University of America for over thirty years, where he held the Walter J. Schmitz Chair of Liturgical Studies (2000–2015), served as Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies (2005–2011), and is currently an Ordinary Research Professor. Msgr. Irwin has published eighteen books on liturgy and sacraments.