The LBW has three distinct paths for communion given as 31, 32 and 33 on page 69. Of these only 32 is Lutheran, the others being Romanish in origin and represent theological errors.
To Luther all that is needed in the Mass is the words of institution:
In the night in which he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his deciples, saying: Take and eat; this is my body given for you.
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance of me.
These words said by anyone, even the Devil himself are what turns the bread and wine into a sacrement; that is the intersection of the True Chruch and the institutional church.
The other two are prayers, but they are directed at God rather from God, making them something that the priest is doing for us as an intermediator. Luther notes it as works rightousness.
What others have to say:
Jim Engh of Missoula, MT:
Eucharistic prayers literally means prayers of thanksgiving, no problem, with that. "The Eucharistic Prayer" has come to refer to the Canon of the Mass, i.e. the prayers that "enshrine the consecrating words of the Last Supper," "the Sacred Words of the Consecration." What is required in Anglican and Roman Catholic celebrations of the mass is the Canon, placing the Words of Insitution in a prayer, thus the words intended to be directed to you and me ["for you"] are, in fact, directed to God. The prayer containing the Words of Institution (Eucharistic Prayer) found it's way into the red SBH and the green LBW as an alternative to the Words of Insitution (although, according to Eugene Brand, they were placed in both those volumes as the preferred usage) and in the blue WOV, and the Marty Haugen, Now the Fesast of the maroon H.S. the Words of Insitution as proclamation has been eliminated. Good bye, Martin Luther.
Gracia Grindal, one of the people working on the LBW originally:
The Eucharistic prayer turns the direction of the proclamation of the supper into a prayer to God which confuses the congregation. Are we doing this for God or for the people. God doesn't need to know the entire history of salvation which is in most prayers. That sounds like sacrifice to me. The proclamation of On the night in which he was betrayed becomes part of the prayer, not the proclamation. Who is the audience, if the verba is in the prayer? In confusing the direction and putting prayer together with proclamation we end up with a mess, one that Luther got rid of by carefully excising the prayer. Flaccius, according to Oliver Olson and many others, saved the Reformation by making this argument successfully. The Eucharistic prayer, however, has been sneaking back in to Lutheran worship ever since the SBH and with the new worship resources [ed: the replacement for the LBW called Renewing Worship] there will be no option not to do the Eucharistic prayer. This is at the heart of the Reformation.
Dr. Oliver K. Olson 07/26/02
Although "ritual direction" may seem innocent, it is not. As any reader of Roman Catholic or Anglican doctrinal books can detect, that "direction" is the basis for the all-important doctrine of the sacrificial priesthood. And we should be aware that Lutheran polemics against the arrogance of "sacrificing Christ again" has recently yielded to the doctrine of "repraesentatio," contemporizing Christ's sacrifice--which has fooled some "Lutherans" into thinking that the requirements of Hebrews 6 have been met. They have not. As Matthias Flacius once warned us, The whole papacy is in the canon' (now re-named "eucharist").
On the basis of "eucharistic theology" it is taught that the communicant is veritably taking part in the sacrifice of Calvary--and thus his self-sacrifice (emphazed by the "eucharistic procession" participates in Christ's atonement. To think that, in the face of a ritual constantly repeated we can avoid emphatic Roman doctrine and by talking about it we can maintain the Lutheran doctrine that the Sacrament offers forgiveness is simply wishful thinking.
The menace is ritual direction. If Jesus words to us are enclosed in a prayer, they become our words to him. The Lord's Supper becomes The Church's Supper.
When in The Babylonian Captivity Luther insisted that our prayer must not be mixed with the Word of God, his followers instantly agreed, and have agreed for four hundred years. Recently, however, some of them are deliberately ignoring Luther's insight, particularly since both Roman Catholics and (for the last century) Episcopalians have made it a priority. Now, one argument against Luther is that there is a "consensus" of liturgical experts. Counting noses has never been a guarantee of truth.