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Additional Eucharistic Prayers in the Roman Missal

Friday, April 10, 2026Faith

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We can look at these in three groups: for Reconciliation, for Various Needs and Occasions, and for Masses with Children.

Father Robert M.
O'Grady

The wide acceptance and use of the new Eucharistic Prayers throughout the Church led bishops' conferences to request approval of the Holy See for additional Eucharistic Prayers. The requests were taken under study, at first reluctantly by Roman Curial officials, but then, with the encouragement of Pope St. Paul VI, additional prayers were approved for the Roman Missal.
We can look at these in three groups: for Reconciliation, for Various Needs and Occasions, and for Masses with Children. The first two sets are in an appendix at the end of the Order of Mass in our Missal. They are noticeable by the tabs: RI, RII, VN I, II, III, IV. They are in an appendix because their use on Sundays is limited. The three Prayers for Masses with Children are in a separate booklet because they are not in the typical or Latin edition of the Missal. So even though available in vernaculars and approved for very limited use -- only at Mass where the children are the majority (more than 51 percent) of the assembly, this would not happen often, if ever, at a Sunday Parish Mass.

Various Needs and Occasions
These four Eucharistic Prayers were composed in Switzerland and nicknamed the Swiss Synod Eucharistic Prayer. They were originally composed in the local vernaculars, i.e., French, German, and Italian. Then they were translated into Latin (to make them official) and then translated into the vernaculars of the world.

The prayer consists of a base prayer common to all four settings, and each setting has a matched set of insertions. To avoid constant page flipping, it was decided to present the four versions separately. So, one prayer morphed into four.
It is important to read the introduction to the prayer, as it tells us when and how it may be used, and likewise when it cannot.
A safe guide is that it may be freely used on any green weekday in Ordinary Time. The introduction to each prayer also suggests appropriate Mass texts from the over 100 pages of Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions in our Roman Missal. The suggestions pair the Mass texts with a specific one of the EPVNO, considering the emphasis in each EPVNO.

Reconciliation
These two prayers were composed in the early 70s with a view to the two Holy Years, those of 1975 and 1983. Since a fundamental theme of every Holy Year is reconciliation -- with God, then with one another, and among various individuals and groups both within and outside the Church -- these two prayers touched the faithful, and so bishops asked that their use be extended beyond the Holy Years.
These prayers are especially apt for Lent and, to a lesser extent, for Advent. Once again, the introductory material before these prayers indicates when they may be used, and even when a different preface, e.g., one of the four Lenten Prefaces, might be used in place of the preface appearing in the Roman Missal with each of the two -- RI and RII.

Masses with Children
There are three of these Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children. Originally composed in French or German, the prayers were intended for use with three progressive age groups.
Broadly, this meant a group of children of First Communion age and immediately after, i.e., ages seven to nine. Another was for pre-teens, ages 10-12; and the third was for early teens, ages 13-15.
The wide approval of the prayers soon eliminated the original age-appropriate concept, as it were, and all three were used variously at Masses with Children.
These prayers are very different from the other Eucharistic Prayers. The other 10, for example, have the three Eucharistic acclamations -- after the preface or the Holy, Holy, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, and Great Amen at the end.
These prayers have the customary acclamations, but additional ones are sprinkled among the whole of the prayers. This was to make the admitted complexity of the prayers more easily grasped, in "smaller bites" if you will.
This means that the principal celebrant must be familiar with this style. He must adjust his "prayer tempo" and tone to the words of the prayer and to the breaks for acclamations in the sequence of the prayer. Neither a celebrant nor an assembly can just pick up any of these prayers without some attention to the style and, advisedly, needs a well-prepared cantor or song leader familiar with the prayer and who can "pray" harmoniously with the celebrant and so effectively lead the rest of the assembly in the proclamation of the prayer.
While not available for use at many Sunday Parish Masses, these Eucharistic Prayers can expose the Catholic community at other Masses to the great variety of prayers readily available in our Roman Missal.