Singing the Eucharistic Prayer

Singing the Eucharistic Prayer

Adam Bartlett

Oct 7, 2025

In its noblest and most normative form, virtually every word of the Mass is meant to be sung (see General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 39-41, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 113, and Musicam Sacram, 5, 27). And yet, in most parishes today, the high point of the entire celebration—the Eucharistic Prayer—is perhaps the part that is sung the least.

Among the reasons given for this situation, we might often hear: 

Singing the Eucharistic Prayer would make the Mass far too long. The Roman Rite had a silent Canon for 1000 years—why would we start singing it now? If the priest were to drone on and on, people might lose attention or interest. It’s just too difficult for most priests to sing well, and many of them were never taught how. 

And the list could go on.

This article responds to these common objections and makes a case for why we should strive to make the sung Eucharistic Prayer, at least in some meaningful way, a part of our normal liturgical practice today. It also offers some guidance to priests in order to help them learn to chant it well, along with some helpful tips for introducing it in a parish setting for the first time.

Basis in the Roman Missal

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal offers the primary basis for singing the entire Mass, including the Eucharistic Prayer, when it says: “in the rubrics and in the norms that follow, words such as ‘say’ and ‘proclaim’ are to be understood either of singing or of reciting” (GIRM, 38). Put differently, any word that can be spoken in the Mass can also be sung. More explicitly, it goes further to say that “it is most appropriate that the Priest sing those parts of the Eucharistic Prayer for which musical notation is provided” (GIRM, 147).

While the first of these directives was also contained in the 1975 General Instruction, what the pre-2011 editions lacked was actual musical notation for the full text of the Eucharistic Prayer in its various forms. The Roman Missal presently in force has rectified this situation by presenting full musical settings of each Prayer immediately following their text-only versions. The Order of Mass itself emphasizes this possibility, saying that “in all Masses, the Priest celebrant is permitted to sing parts of the Eucharistic Prayer provided with musical notation below… especially the principal parts” (Order of Mass, 32). On this basis alone, the sung Eucharistic Prayer clearly should be within the capabilities of most priests.

Practical Basis: Too Long?

The instruction given in GIRM 38, quoted above, follows an interesting insight that liturgical scholars have gleaned from the historical sources of the liturgy. When these sources use the word “dicere,” they often do not merely express an optionality between speech or song. Instead, they suggest much more of a hybrid between the two—a kind of sung speech that is neither song nor speech, but something that falls somewhere in the middle. This style of recitation is also commonly called cantillation, or a simple form of text recitation in a liturgical context that employs a natural speech rhythm paired with simple, unembellished, and highly intuitive melodic formulas. The melodies for the Eucharistic Prayer are almost entirely in the form of cantillation and should be sung with the rhythm of natural speech and not with any intrusions from modern vocal styles.

What this means in practical terms for the Priest celebrant is that chanting the Mass does not require a well-trained singing voice according to modern standards, but merely a good speaking voice and the ability to concentrate the voice’s pitch on a few different notes. When sung this way, there is minimal difference in overall length between a Eucharistic Prayer that is recited with “sung speech” and one that is merely spoken. As a result, the length of a Mass with a sung Eucharistic Prayer does not need to be any longer than one with a Eucharistic Prayer that is spoken.

Historical Basis

Liturgical scholars (such as Jungmann, Mazza, and Schmemann) tend to agree that prior to the 10th century, a form of the sung Eucharistic Prayer was commonly in use in the Mass of the Roman Rite, after which a silent recitation of the Canon (submissa voce) became the norm. Many of the Eastern rites, however, have retained the sung Eucharistic Prayer which remains a common practice in many Eastern liturgies today. The prominence of the silent Canon in the history of the Western Church—bookended by the sung Preface and Sanctus at the beginning and the sung Per ipsum and Pater noster at the end in a Solemn High Mass—may make a fully sung Eucharistic Prayer seem a bit excessive. The restoration of the pre-10th century practice of an audible Canon, though, requires it in order to achieve a fully sung form of Mass.

While we have very little to tell us what the sung Eucharistic Prayer might have sounded like prior to the introduction of the silent Canon, we can safely assume that it followed the simple cantillation form used also for other parts of the Order of Mass which have been transmitted to us over the centuries, similar to common practice in the Eastern rites. Its re-introduction, then, required an application of the Solemn Tone of the Order of Mass in addition to adaptations from portions of the Te Deum chant.

The chants for the full Eucharistic Prayers were first published in Ordo Missae in Cantu by the monastery of Solesmes in 1975, and then were officially incorporated into the 2002 Missale Romanum, which were subsequently adapted and included in the 2011 English translation of the Roman Missal. It may be hard to believe that we have only had readily available resources for chanting the Eucharistic Prayer in English since 2011. Now is an excellent time for priests who have not yet learned to sing the Eucharistic Prayer to take some time to learn at least its principal parts, found conveniently in the main body of the Roman Missal.

Participatory Basis

The 1967 Instruction on Music in the Liturgy, Musicam Sacram, offers an excellent response to the objection that a sung Eucharistic Prayer might cause the faithful to lose attention or interest during the most important part of the Mass. To the contrary, the postconciliar instruction on sacred music offers these reasons for why the sung form of celebration is preferred above the spoken form:

Indeed, through this form, prayer is expressed in a more attractive way, the mystery of the liturgy, with its hierarchical and community nature, is more openly shown, the unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by the union of voices, minds are more easily raised to heavenly things by the beauty of the sacred rites, and the whole celebration more clearly prefigures that heavenly liturgy which is enacted in the holy city of Jerusalem. Pastors of souls will therefore do all they can to achieve this form of celebration. 

When executed well, the sung Eucharistic Prayer has the power to make the words more beautiful, drawing and attracting the hearer more powerfully toward the truths and realities that they convey. Beauty elevates our minds to the things of heaven, while conversational speech tends to draw us down to the mundane and ordinary things of the world. But a beautifully sung Eucharistic Prayer, as Musicam Sacram suggests, has the power to make this most sublime prayer, that actually unites the earthly liturgy with the liturgy of the Heavenly Jerusalem, more clearly expressive of that invisible reality to those who hear it. In a time like our own, when we are used to being the subjects of an ever-pressing attention economy, a solemnly sung liturgy can much more powerfully draw us out of the noise and distractions of our world and into a contemplative gaze upon the things of heaven.

The Crux of the Matter: Singing it Well

The final objection that is often given to singing the Eucharistic Prayer is probably the most consequential in practice. In order for it to achieve all of its potential, as Musicam Sacram describes, the Eucharistic Prayer must be sung well. It must be properly learned, well prepared, and well executed. It is true that seminary formation for decades did not emphasize teaching priests-in-training to sing the Mass. It is also true that we have lacked the practical resources, such as a Roman Missal with all of the needed melodies, to make this training feasible in many cases.

Fortunately for us now, we have the internet. Abundant practice videos on YouTube and resources like the Source & Summit Digital Platform  give priests previously unimaginable support in achieving beautiful sung liturgies on the parish level. 

For many priests who did not receive training in singing the Eucharistic Prayers of the 2011 Roman Missal while in seminary, it can be tempting just to “wing it” using whatever might work best and seem most achievable at the moment. After all, “no one would know the difference anyway,” some might say. That would be a mistake, though. The melodies given in the Roman Missal should be thoroughly learned so that our sung liturgies express the unity of the Roman Rite and not the idiosyncrasies of any given priest celebrant. Just as vestments serve to make the person of the priest transparent, so too does the musical vesture of his chant make his voice transparent and more expressive of the voice of Christ who prays through the priest to the Father in heaven.

Practical Guide

Here are some practical tips for learning how to sing the Eucharistic Prayer well, along with some suggestions for introducing it into your parish context for the first time.

  • Remember that chant is “sung speech.” It should not be theatrical or overly expressive in any way. It should tend toward the rhythm and expression of good speech far more than operatic or more theatrical singing styles. Similarly, for those who lack formal vocal training, emphasizing the rhythm and expression of speech should be the starting point. Matching and maintaining pitch is crucial, and anyone who might struggle with this might consult his music leader for some assistance. However, since every priest can speak, he is more than halfway to chanting well.

  • Pay attention to phrasing. Rather than seeing pages of endless notes, focus on the bigger picture: the overall structure of the Eucharistic Prayer, the larger sections, the cadences, etc. The melodic formulas are very simple and predictable, making it less important to try to look at every note, and more helpful to glance at the notes while focusing primarily on the meaning and structure of the text.

  • Prioritize the Institution Narrative. These are obviously the most important words of the Eucharistic Prayer, and they also are given special melodic treatment in the melodies of the Roman Missal. Be sure that they can be sung well and confidently above all else.

  • Begin with the Simple Tone. The Roman Missal offers both Simple and Solemn Tone options for Eucharistic Prayer I (the Roman Canon). For those who lack training in singing, the Simple Tone should be mastered before moving on to the Solemn Tone. Even for those with more singing experience, beginning with the Simple Tone could still be a wise choice. A part of the priest’s success in chanting the Eucharistic Prayer is endurance and consistency from beginning to end, and focusing on simplicity at first is likely to help foster practical success.

  • Introduce gradually. At first, if needed, consider singing the Eucharistic Prayer only through the Mystery of Faith, and then recite the rest of the Prayer before resuming the singing with the Doxology and Amen. Also, be sure to use the melodies found in the Roman Missal for the Mystery of Faith and Amen when chanting the Eucharistic Prayer—these melodies were designed to be used together, and they flow one into the next in a seamless way. Parishioners are often shocked to find that what usually feels like a musical interruption can become a seamless part of a single, solemn sung prayer.

  • Make use of Progressive Solemnity. Consider introducing the sung Eucharistic Prayer first at Christmas Midnight Mass, or perhaps on Holy Thursday or Pentecost. Do not necessarily limit it to the greatest solemnities, though, once it is introduced and established. Consider working toward a sung Eucharistic Prayer at the principal Masses of the principal seasons of the year, or even at the principal Mass every Sunday once a practice of sung liturgy has firmly taken root.

While the fully sung liturgy with a sung Eucharistic Prayer alongside a fully sung Order, Ordinary, and Proper of the Mass may seem like a remote and distant reality for many parishes, this should not discourage us from taking small steps toward realizing it more fully over time. Unlike the hard and fast distinction between sung and spoken Masses of times past, the implementation of the sung liturgy by degrees as modeled in Musicam Sacram is an immense gift to the Church that we can use gradually, pastorally, and prudently in any context.

Pastors who may feel somewhat helpless and hopeless about the state of their parish music programs can take solace in the fact that the principal song of the liturgy only requires their voice—well practiced and prepared—and the voices of a few members of the faithful in the pews, and nothing more. The gravitational effect that singing the Order of Mass, highlighted by a sung Eucharistic Prayer, can have on a parish’s musical culture can be profound. And with a little dedication, study, and effort, it can be done by any priest in any parish.

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