Anamnesis

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
This article contains claims at more than one doctrinal grade. The summary shows the highest represented grade.
GuideChrist's once-for-all Paschal sacrifice and its sacramental presence belong to Catholic doctrine; the expression of anamnesis in approved rites is liturgical discipline, explained through Catholic sacramental theology.
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Anamnesis is the Church's liturgical memorial of God's saving deeds, especially Christ's Paschal Mystery, made present sacramentally in the Holy Spirit.

Liturgical memorial

Anamnesis is a Greek word for remembrance or memorial. In the liturgy, it names more than private recollection of an absent past. Obedient to Christ's command, the Church remembers God's saving deeds in proclamation, thanksgiving, sacramental signs, and prayer, while the Holy Spirit brings the assembly into living relation with the mystery celebrated.[1]

Christian memorial does not make the historical events happen again. Christ died and rose once for all. The liturgy makes his one Paschal Mystery sacramentally present and communicates its saving fruits to the Church in each age.

In the Eucharistic Prayer

In Eucharistic Prayers that contain a discrete institution narrative, the anamnesis ordinarily follows it: the Church fulfills the command received through the apostles by recalling especially Christ's blessed Passion, glorious Resurrection, and Ascension. In the ancient Anaphora of Addai and Mari, the institution narrative is not recited as one coherent passage but its words and meaning are dispersed euchologically through the prayer. In every approved tradition, the memorial offers to the Father the unblemished sacrificial Victim whom the Father has given the Church.[2][3]

The wording and placement vary among the approved Eucharistic traditions of the Catholic Churches. Anamnesis and epiclesis are distinct but inseparable dimensions of sacramental prayer: the Church remembers Christ's saving work and invokes the Holy Spirit in the celebration of that same mystery.[4]

Memory that forms the Church

The Liturgy of the Word also has an anamnetic character because the Spirit recalls to the assembly what Christ has done and elicits faith, thanksgiving, and praise. The Church's memory is ecclesial: she receives it from Scripture and apostolic Tradition rather than inventing a meaning for the rite in each gathering.

Those who celebrate are called to live what they remember. Participation in Christ's self-offering forms a people of thanksgiving, communion, repentance, and charity and directs them toward his return in glory.

References

  1. 1.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1356–1381 — The Eucharist as thanksgiving, memorial, sacrifice, and presence
  2. 2.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — Sections 78–79 on the elements of the Eucharistic Prayer, including anamnesis
  3. 3.Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East — The Holy See's doctrinal judgment concerning the ancient Anaphora of Addai and Mari
  4. 4.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1091–1109 — The Holy Spirit, anamnesis, and epiclesis in the liturgy