My Dear Friends,

As we continue through the Roman Canon (the first Eucharistic prayer), we first must see that the Roman Canon is poetic, one of the great poetic compositions in Western Civilization. Since it is written in Latin, we don’t experience the richness of the poetry so much in the translation of the Canon into English.

Father Ambrose Bennet, OSB, and Father Jon Tveit explain in their article the design of the Canon. They write, “Though the Roman Canon may seem long and diffuse at first glance, it displays on closer inspection a beautifully symmetrical design: the consecration is like a jewel set between the invocation upon the gifts and the anamnesis. The mementos and the lists of saints represent the larger frame within which the consecration takes place. This ‘frame’ is the whole Mystical Body (in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory) at worship with Christ in the midst of His saints as our Great High Priest.”

The lists of the saints are of venerable tradition, and there is logic to these lists. These lists remained unchanged for over 1300 years before Pope St. John XXIII added St. Joseph’s name into the canon. One particular theologian, after researching many priests and other theologians of the 1950’s and 1960’s, has argued that the insertion of St. Joseph’s name in the Roman Canon in 1962 opened the door for further innovations in regards to the liturgy, which ultimately led to the complete destruction of the Catholic Mass and opened the door for the Mass of Pope St. Paul VI in 1970.

For example, the first list of saints after the Blessed Mother has 24 names (12 Apostles and 12 Martyrs). You can argue that the composition of this list places Mary above the 24 elders of the fourth chapter of Revelation. This hearkens to a nice symmetry of the Blessed Mother as Queen of the Apostles and all the saints.

There’s a further symmetry in the actual listing of the saints. We begin with Peter and Paul (the great Apostle added to the other 11, even though St. Matthias was the one appointed to replace the betrayer), then Andrew (the brother of Peter), the grouping of James and John (the sons of Zebedee), Thomas, James, Philp, Bartholomew (Philip and Bartholomew were friends), Matthew, Simon and Jude (Simon and Jude traveled together and were martyred together); then we have the second list of 12, beginning with five popes and a bishop (Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian), followed by a deacon and five laymen (Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian).

Cyprian is added even though he was bishop in Carthage, but he was a great defender of Pope Cornelius. They are commemorated together on September 16th. John and Paul were two eunuchs as well as brothers and Cosmas and Damian are also brothers. We will do the second list of saints in an upcoming bulletin. God bless.

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