History of the Roman Canon

And here's an example of that.

On ma-- At mass on Sunday, if the priest uses the Roman Canon, which is that more traditional, more ancient, longer form of the Eucharistic prayer, you'll notice that early on, all 12 apostles except for Judas are mentioned.

Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon, and Jude.

Paul is there because he indeed was an apostle, but he wasn't one of the 12 apostles.

Yeah.

What I would need to do is look at the text of the—it sounds like it's from the Roman Canon, which is the first Eucharistic prayer, the most ancient and venerable one.

And I believe that that phrase is in there.

I believe that he's reading exactly what is there.

Some medieval authors devote entire treatises to the unfolding of the great prayer.

Here, I should like to consider three aspects of the Roman Canon as celebrated by St. Thomas according to the Dominican use of his day, and indeed by all the priests of the Latin church who celebrate Mass in the traditional Latin form, whether Tridentine or Dominican.

First, the silence with which it is recited.

Secondly, the many signs of the cross performed during the recitation of the Canon.

The silence of the priest, who is the icon of Christ, represents the silence of the lamb, dumb as a lamb before his shearer.

That silence of Good Friday which in a certain way reproduces the silence of Christmas Day when the Virgin-born Word, a speechless infant," verbum infants, "Lay in silence in the crib." Signs of the cross.

In the Roman Canon, in its older use, the priest makes many signs of the cross with his hand over the host and chalice, with the host over the chalice, and with his hand on his head and breast.

St. Thomas holds these signs in high veneration.

He was a priest scholar in the 20th century, and he did a great deal of work, patristics especially, kind of tracing the development of the Roman Rite of the Mass back to its earliest form during the time of the apostles.

And so those specific kinds of details, like when were these names created? inserted into the Eucharistic prayer in the Roman canon, which is what you're referring to.

That's the longer, more elaborate canon, the more traditional canon that's used by priests at their discretion.

Of course, they can choose which of the Eucharistic prayers that they choose, but I always like that one.