Through the Eucharist, Christ wishes to enter into our life and permeate it with his grace, so that in every Christian community there may be coherence between liturgy and life. Let us live the Eucharist with the spirit of faith, of prayer, of forgiveness, of repentance, of communal joy, of concern for the needy and for the needs of so many brothers and sisters, in the certainty that the Lord will fulfil what he has promised us: eternal life. So be it! Melanie Jean Juneau is a mother of nine children who blogs at joy of nine9.
Her writing is humorous and heart-warming; thoughtful and thought-provoking. Part of her call and her witness is to write the truth about children, family, marriage and the sacredness of life. Support CatholicMom. Family Theater Productions. Congregation of the Holy Cross. Father Patrick Peyton, C. How do You Live Out the Eucharist? Now he challenges us to live out this communion with Christ, "How do we experience the Eucharist?
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CatholicMom on Social Networks. How very important it is that we cultivate an attitude of gratitude. In fact, all that we have is a gift from God with one exception: the sins that we have freely chosen to commit. After Mass spend some time in thanking Jesus for coming to visit the humble abode of your heart. You might even take advantage of an acronym that summarizes the four basic ends or purposes of Holy Mass: A. If these ten practices are carried out, or at least some of them, then your love for Jesus in the Eucharist as the Bread of Life will definitely grow and you will be on the Highway to salvation.
Whoever eats my Body and drinks my Blood will have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Tagged as: Best of Week , Eucharist , prayer , thanksgiving. He blogs regularly at Fr. Broom's Blog. How the Saints Endured Loneliness. Poor Wayfaring Strangers. Catholic Exchange is a project of Sophia Institute Press.
Email Login. Catholic Exchange. Ed Broom, OMV. Appreciation How painful it is when a man or woman takes their spouse for granted? By Fr. Subscribe to CE It's free. CE Podcast Finding Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati Christine M. Most Shared. All rights reserved. While sin damages, and can even destroy, that relationship, the sacrament of Penance can restore it. Paul tells us that "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup" 1 Cor Anyone who is conscious of having committed a mortal sin should be reconciled through the sacrament of Penance before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, unless a grave reason exists for doing so and there is no opportunity for confession. In this case, the person is to be mindful of the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, that is, an act of sorrow for sins that "arises from a love by which God is loved above all else" Catechism , no.
The act of perfect contrition must be accompanied by the firm intention of making a sacramental confession as soon as possible. Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is wholly present under the appearance either of bread or of wine in the Eucharist.
Furthermore, Christ is wholly present in any fragment of the consecrated Host or in any drop of the Precious Blood. Nevertheless, it is especially fitting to receive Christ in both forms during the celebration of the Eucharist.
This allows the Eucharist to appear more perfectly as a banquet, a banquet that is a foretaste of the banquet that will be celebrated with Christ at the end of time when the Kingdom of God is established in its fullness cf. Eucharisticum Mysterium , no.
Christ is present during the Eucharist in various ways. He is present in the person of the priest who offers the sacrifice of the Mass.
According to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, Christ is present in his Word "since it is he himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. Furthermore, he is likewise present in other sacraments; for example, "when anybody baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes" ibid.
We speak of the presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine as "real" in order to emphasize the special nature of that presence. What appears to be bread and wine is in its very substance the Body and Blood of Christ. The entire Christ is present, God and man, body and blood, soul and divinity.
While the other ways in which Christ is present in the celebration of the Eucharist are certainly not unreal, this way surpasses the others. First, the Body of Christ refers to the human body of Jesus Christ, who is the divine Word become man. During the Eucharist, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. As human, Jesus Christ has a human body, a resurrected and glorified body that in the Eucharist is offered to us in the form of bread and wine.
Secondly, as St. Paul taught us in his letters, using the analogy of the human body, the Church is the Body of Christ, in which many members are united with Christ their head 1 Cor , ; Rom This reality is frequently referred to as the Mystical Body of Christ. All those united to Christ, the living and the dead, are joined together as one Body in Christ. This union is not one that can be seen by human eyes, for it is a mystical union brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The central act of the Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the individual believers are sustained as members of the Church, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, through their reception of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.
Playing on the two meanings of "Body of Christ," St. Augustine tells those who are to receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist: "Be what you see, and receive what you are" Sermon In another sermon he says, "If you receive worthily, you are what you have received" Sermon The work of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of the Eucharist is twofold in a way that corresponds to the twofold meaning of "Body of Christ.
In the eucharistic prayer, the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit down upon the gifts of bread and wine to transform them into the Body and Blood of Christ a prayer known as the epiclesis or "invocation upon". On the other hand, at the same time the priest also asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit down upon the whole assembly so that "those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit" Catechism , no.
It is through the Holy Spirit that the gift of the eucharistic Body of Christ comes to us and through the Holy Spirit that we are joined to Christ and each other as the Mystical Body of Christ. By this we can see that the celebration of the Eucharist does not just unite us to God as individuals who are isolated from one another.
Rather, we are united to Christ together with all the other members of the Mystical Body. The celebration of the Eucharist should thus increase our love for one another and remind us of our responsibilities toward one another. Furthermore, as members of the Mystical Body, we have a duty to represent Christ and to bring Christ to the world. We have a responsibility to share the Good News of Christ not only by our words but also by how we live our lives.
We also have a responsibility to work against all the forces in our world that oppose the Gospel, including all forms of injustice.
To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren" no. The word "mystery" is commonly used to refer to something that escapes the full comprehension of the human mind.
In the Bible, however, the word has a deeper and more specific meaning, for it refers to aspects of God's plan of salvation for humanity, which has already begun but will be completed only with the end of time. In ancient Israel, through the Holy Spirit God revealed to the prophets some of the secrets of what he was going to accomplish for the salvation of his people cf.
Am ; Is ; Dan Likewise, through the preaching and teaching of Jesus, the mystery of "the Kingdom of God" was being revealed to his disciples Mk Paul explained that the mysteries of God may challenge our human understanding or may even seem to be foolishness, but their meaning is revealed to the People of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cf. The Eucharist is a mystery because it participates in the mystery of Jesus Christ and God's plan to save humanity through Christ.
We should not be surprised if there are aspects of the Eucharist that are not easy to understand, for God's plan for the world has repeatedly surpassed human expectations and human understanding cf. Jn For example, even the disciples did not at first understand that it was necessary for the Messiah to be put to death and then to rise from the dead cf.
Mk , , ; Mt , , ; Lk , , Furthermore, any time that we are speaking of God we need to keep in mind that our human concepts never entirely grasp God. We must not try to limit God to our understanding, but allow our understanding to be stretched beyond its normal limitations by God's revelation.
By his Real Presence in the Eucharist Christ fulfils his promise to be with us "always, until the end of the age" Mt Thomas Aquinas wrote, "It is the law of friendship that friends should live together. Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood" Summa Theologiae , III q.
With this gift of Christ's presence in our midst, the Church is truly blessed. As Jesus told his disciples, referring to his presence among them, "Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" Mt In the Eucharist the Church both receives the gift of Jesus Christ and gives grateful thanks to God for such a blessing.
This thanksgiving is the only proper response, for through this gift of himself in the celebration of the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine Christ gives us the gift of eternal life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
As the Gospel of Matthew tells us: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body. Mk , Lk , 1 Cor Recalling these words of Jesus, the Catholic Church professes that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest.
Why does Jesus give himself to us as food and drink? Why is the Eucharist not only a meal but also a sacrifice? When the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, why do they still look and taste like bread and wine? Does the bread cease to be bread and the wine cease to be wine? Is it fitting that Christ's Body and Blood become present in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine? Are the consecrated bread and wine "merely symbols"?
Do the consecrated bread and wine cease to be the Body and Blood of Christ when the Mass is over? Why are some of the consecrated hosts reserved after the Mass? What are appropriate signs of reverence with respect to the Body and Blood of Christ? If someone without faith eats and drinks the consecrated bread and wine, does he or she still receive the Body and Blood of Christ? If a believer who is conscious of having committed a mortal sin eats and drinks the consecrated bread and wine, does he or she still receive the Body and Blood of Christ?
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