Epiclesis

Epiclesis (from Greek ἐπικαλέω, epikaleo, i phone, call upon ') means first general since ancient times, the invocation of one or more gods, and is thus an important part of every prayer.

As a term of Christian theology called epiclesis in particular the calling down or invocation of God. In the Eucharist, there is a core prayer ( " Prayer " ), which is rebuilt anamnetisch - epikletisch in itself, that turns to God as the yesterday, today and tomorrow actors praising and pleading. Epiclesis denotes the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine (so-called conversion or Konsekrationsepiklese ) and / or the beneficiaries of the Eucharistic food (so-called Kommunionepiklese ).

On evaluation, the epiclesis is a historical, but not any more church-dividing difference between the Roman Catholic Church of the West on the one hand and the Orthodox Churches of the East and the Old Catholic Church on the other.

Agreement among all Catholic churches type into East and West, that after the consecration the true body and the true blood of Christ on the altar ( real presence ) and that the holiness of the Eucharistic food is provided by the work of God. If this conversion but led by the repetition of the Lord words in persona Christi ("This is my body ...") in the Eucharistic Prayer, as it is Christological oriented Roman Catholic doctrine, or by the calling down of the Holy Spirit, or both, or all the Eucharist, as it represents the Orthodox Church in pneumatologischer accent? Same time, this raises the liturgical question of when - if ever - the epiclesis is to speak, before or after the words of institution. During the Western Catholicism in the Eucharistic Prayer, provided it contains the epiclesis such, can frame the institution narrative ( as so-called conversion and communion epiclesis ), it represents the Orthodox and ostkirchlich Catholic practice behind the words of institution and moves them theologically in the center. So it says in the - by both Orthodox and Catholics used - Chrysostom liturgy after the ( loud sung ) words of institution in silent prayer: " ... and call and pray and make supplication to thee: send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and these gifts .. and make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ! But that in this chalice for the precious Blood of Your Christ ... transforming through Your Holy Spirit! Amen, Amen, Amen! "

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church ( SELK ) the epiclesis occurs, understood here as a petition to the Holy Spirit, just before the words of consecration in the so-called Lord's Supper form B, where it says: " ... gathered in his name and in his memory, we beseech thee, Lord, send down upon us the Holy Spirit, holy and renew us in body and soul, and grant that we may receive under the bread and wine the true body and blood of your Son in the true faith for our salvation, ... ".

The institution narrative and the epiclesis are both in the Eucharist originally and essentially parts of a prayer to God, not about formulas with which the speaker speaks to the gifts or their recipients. For isolation, as a formula, it has come only in the theological reflection of later centuries. In Western theology then was the Eucharistic Prayer only as a pious frame of actually sanctifying words of Christ. In the East, the importance of the epiclesis for the Eucharist became more and more highlighted until eventually claimed by some Orthodox theologians in the 17th century, you alone get to konsekratorische force since John of Damascus (8th century). This view is now widely criticized, and the common perception of Orthodox theology asks that words of consecration and invocation of the Holy Spirit are both necessary for the enforcement of the Eucharist, and also the conversion can be seen in the context of the entire liturgy and not from man arbitrarily a given time can be fixed. Strengthened since the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church approaches to the Eastern Churches, by, ie, the appeal to God for the Holy Spirit to have a regular place in the Mass liturgy assigns the epiclesis. In the newer Eucharistic prayers, the so-called conversion epiclesis stands before the institution narrative as a request for the sanctification of the gifts: "We ask you, Father, the Spirit, holy these gifts, so that they may become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. " After it is prayed in the so-called communion epiclesis to the fruitful reception of the Eucharist.

As part of the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue was established in 1982 as a common belief of both churches regarding Eucharistic epiclesis: " The Spirit transforms the sacred gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the growth of the body, which is the Church completed. In this sense, the whole celebration is an epiclesis, but at certain moments more clearly expressed. The Church is constantly in a state of epiclesis, the calling down of the Holy Spirit. "