Introduction
1. The Church draws her life from the Eucharist, which is the Source and Summit of the Christian Life. This paragraph states how important the Eucharist is.
2. The first transubstantiation, complete changing of the bread and wine into the body, blood soul and divinity of Christ, took place in the upper room, the significance of which wasn’t fully known till after the triduum. This paragraph states how the Eucharist transforms into the body and blood of Christ and then allows us the opportunity to partake.
3. The Church was born of the paschal mystery and still stands at the center of the Church’s life which we continue to relive at every Mass.
4. The hour of our redemption is memorialized in the triduum and every priest who celebrates Holy Mass, together with the Christian community are taken back in time to that time.
5. The mystery of our faith points to the Ecclesia de Eucharistia and at consecration, “the priest puts his voice at the disposal of the One who spoke these words in the Upper Room.”
6. The Church, through Mary, draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened.
7. Contemplating Christ through Mary and her rosary, the “Eucharistic face” of Christ is the center of the Church and everyone is urged to experience it ever anew.
8. No matter where you are, the Mass is celebrated on the altar of the world and unites Heaven and earth. Through the Eucharist the world came forth from the hands of God the Creator now returns to him redeemed by Christ.
9. The Eucharist is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history. The Eucharist has always been a lively concern for the Church shown through multiple documents over the centuries.
10. In contrasting the good, “light” and negative, “shadows” the pope talks about how adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is an inexhaustible source of holiness and is too great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.
Chapter One
11. The Eucharist, the gift par excellence, source and summit of our faith, is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord’s passion and death, which is not only a reminder but the sacramental re-presentation of the cross perpetuated down through the ages, illustrating His love for us. The Eucharist contains both the person of Jesus and also His saving work.
12. Jesus states, “This is my body”, “this is my blood”, “which is given for you”, “which is poured out for you.” Jesus tells us what the Eucharist is and what it’s sacrificial meaning is, which is that one single sacrifice perpetuated for all throughout the ages and is where the Church draws her life.
13. The Eucharist is a sacrifice in the strict sense, not symbolic but a gift of Himself to the Father, which was a gift of love and obedience to the point of giving His life, given for our sake. We are called to unite ourselves to the sacrifice of Christ.
14. The Eucharistic sacrifice makes present not only the mystery of the Savior’s passion and death, but also the mystery of His resurrection which crowned His sacrifice. It’s through the resurrection that the Eucharist can be called the living bread or the bread of life.
15. The consecration effects the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood. The holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called this change transubstantiation which is a mystery that surpasses our understanding and received in faith. There remains the boundary indicated by Paul VI: “Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, must firmly maintain that in objective reality, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the consecration, so that the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus from that moment on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine”.
16. The saving effect of the sacrifice, which Jesus reassures us is comparative to that of the life of the Trinity, is fully realized when the Lord’s body and blood are received in communion. This is objective truth. Jesus tells us “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you”, “my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”
17. When we eat the body and blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit, which was poured out in baptism and bestowed as an indelible mark – a seal in the sacrament of confirmation, is increased within us.
18. Those that receive Jesus in the Eucharist, need not wait for eternal life, we are given the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man his totality. The Eucharist leads us to the goal promised by Christ, glory in Heaven. Communion is the anticipation of heaven on earth, the pledge of future resurrection, because the flesh of the Son of Man given as food, is His body in its glorious state after resurrection. The Eucharistic bread is a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death.
19. The Eucharist is truly a glimpse of heaven and reinforces our communion with the Church in heaven through many ways but especially through our prayers honoring Mary, the angels, the holy apostles, the glorious martyrs and all the saints.
20. All who take part in the Eucharist are committed to changing their lives because it increases our sense of responsibility to the world and a world fully in harmony with God’s plan. Jesus challenges us to provide hope to the world by telling all men about the Lord and that He remains with us in the Eucharist, making His presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by His love.
Chapter Two
21. The Church grows as often as the sacrifice of the Cross, by which Christ our pasch is celebrated. When the Eucharist is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out.
22. The Eucharistic Sacrifice, in sacramental communion, allows us to receive Christ and Christ to receive us. Since the Eucharist is the source and summit of all evangelization, we share the goal of Christ for mankind to be in union with Him, who is in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
23. The bread is the body of Christ and those who receive it become the body of Christ and they are not many bodies but one body.
24. The Eucharist is much more than the sharing of a meal, but in communion with the body of Christ becomes ever more profoundly a sign and instrument of intimate unity with God and the unity of the whole human race. The seeds of disunity are countered by the unifying power of the body of Christ.
25. The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is immeasurable in value to the life of the Church and of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us. Through a renewed need to spend time in spiritual conversation in silent adoration we can develop a heartfelt love for Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
Chapter Three
26. The Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist. The Church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic” and the Eucharist is also one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
27. The Eucharist, like the Church, is apostolic since it was entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and has been handed down to their successors. The Church uses proper terminology to more precisely define the unchanging teaching on the Eucharist and to safeguard the apostolic teachings on the Eucharist.
28. The Church continues to be taught, sanctified and guided by the Apostles until Christ’s return through the uninterrupted succession of the Bishops assisted by priests, in union with the pope, the Successor to Peter. Since the priest, acting in the person of Christ, brings about the Eucharistic Sacrifice and offers it to God in the name of all the people, only he should recite the Eucharistic Prayer, while the people participate in faith and in silence.
29. Through Holy Orders, the Bishop acting as successor of the Apostles, makes a new priest by conferring upon him the power to consecrate the Eucharist “in persona Christi.” The Eucharistic mystery cannot be celebrated in any community except by an ordained priest.
30. Since Ecclesial Communities are separated from the fullness of unity with the Church and lack the sacrament of Holy Orders, the Catholic faithful should not receive communion at their celebration and their celebration cannot be a substitute for Sunday Mass.
31. It is important for the spiritual life of the priest and is the central raison d’etre to celebrate the Eucharist daily since the Eucharistic Sacrifice will be the strength needed to fulfill their pastoral duties. Through pastoral charity, the priest brings about the promotion of priestly vocations in the Celebration of the Eucharist.
32. When a priest isn’t available, the community can continue in prayer for the promotion of men to the priestly vocation, while they await for a priest to celebrate the Eucharist without yielding to the temptation to seek solutions which lower the moral and formative standards demanded of candidates for the priesthood.
33. Non-ordained members of the faithful have the responsibility, when there is no priest available, to keep alive in a community a genuine hunger for the Eucharist and when available always take advantage of a priest to celebrate Mass. No Christian community can be built up unless it has its basis and center in the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist.
Chapter Four
34. The Eucharist is the culmination of all the sacraments and is the perfect sacrament where we attain God and God joins Himself with us. If we cannot receive the Blessed Sacrament, we make a spiritual communion through a strong desire for the Eucharist.
35. The Eucharist presupposes that there is a unity between us and the Church. The Eucharist also consolidates and brings about perfection in the expression of both the invisible bonds linking us to the Father and the visible bonds linking us to the Apostolic hierarchy.
36. The invisible bond linking us to the Father presupposes a life of grace, which means we are properly disposed to receive the Eucharist and we have gone to the sacrament of Reconciliation if we are conscious of grave sin.
37. We must receive Reconciliation to receive the Eucharist worthily and the Eucharist, in turn, makes us aware of the need for Reconciliation. If someone is outwardly participating in sinful activity, they are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion.
38. We must be united to the Church outwardly in a series of visible bonds before receiving communion.
39. A truly Eucharistic community cannot be closed in upon itself, as though it were somehow self-sufficient; rather it must persevere in harmony with every other Catholic community through unity with the Bishop and the Roman Pontiff. Every valid celebration of the Eucharist expresses this universal communion with Peter and with the whole Church, or objectively calls for it, as in the case of the Christian Churches separated from Rome.
40. If we have divisions amongst ourselves we will contradict the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. If we receive the mystery of unity without peace, we will not benefit but condemn ourselves.
41. The faithful have the obligation to attend Mass, unless they are seriously impeded, and that Pastors have the corresponding duty to see that it is practical and possible for all to fulfill this precept. Through sharing in the Eucharist, the Lord’s Day also becomes the Day of the Church, when she can effectively exercise her role as the sacrament of unity.
42. The Church’s Pastor and each member of the faithful safeguard the Eucharist while promoting communion through drawing up norms that foster frequent and fruitful access to the Eucharist and when it cannot be given.
43. In the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Church prays that God, the Father of mercies, will grant his children the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that they may become one body and one spirit in Christ, thus fostering ecumenical unity.
44. Since the Eucharist requires full communion in the bonds of the profession of faith, sacraments and ecclesiastical governance, it is not possible to celebrate together the same Eucharistic liturgy until those bonds are fully re-established.
45. There are guidelines established to provide for circumstances when members of Eastern Christians, properly disposed and separated in good faith from the Catholic Church ask to receive the Eucharist from a Catholic minister. These guidelines also address non-Eastern Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.
46. Catholic ministers are able, in certain particular cases, to administer the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick to Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church but who greatly desire to receive these sacraments, freely request them and manifest the faith which the Catholic Church professes with regard to these sacraments. Conversely, in specific cases and in particular circumstances, Catholics too can request these same sacraments from ministers of Churches in which these sacraments are valid, but are forbidden from receiving communion in communities which lack a valid sacrament of Orders.
Chapter Five
47. Jesus directed His actions toward his imminent death and burial and sees the anointing at Bethany as an anticipation of the honor which His body will continue to merit even after His death. Holy Thursday has a visible liturgical nature, shaped by Old Testament tradition and reshaped in conformity with the Easter Miracle.
48. The Church devotes her best resources to the expression of her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist. Christian liturgy arises out of the words of Jesus and the ritual heritage of Judaism. The Eucharistic Banquet is truly a “sacred” banquet, where the simplicity of action and signs conceals the unfathomable holiness of God.
49. The Eucharist calls for interior devotion and also calls for outward expressions of that devotion meant to emphasize the grandeur of what is celebrated. Once there was a form of regulating the liturgy, people’s efforts developed a rich artistic heritage in architecture, sculpture, painting and music. The Eucharist shaped the Church and her spirituality and also powerfully affected the culture and the arts in particular.
50. Architecture and mosaic splendors of the East and West contain hope and contain a pledge of reconciliation in faith and celebration. Sacred art, in figurative form and sacred music, needs to adequately express the mystery grasped in the fullness of the faith.
51. The Eucharistic Celebration adapts to the changing conditions of time and place and offers sustenance to individuals as well as entire peoples while shaping their cultures. Adaption must be carried out with an awareness of the ineffable mystery against which every generation is called to measure itself and must be carefully reviewed by competent ecclesiastical authorities in close association with the Holy See.
52. There is a great responsibility for the priest to provide a celebration of the Eucharist in fidelity to the norms of the Church. Liturgy is never anyone’s private property and no one is permitted to undervalue the mystery’s sacredness and its universality.
Chapter Six
53. The Church is called to imitate Mary and her relationship to the Eucharist.
54. Mary can be our support and guide in our abandonment to the word of God in understanding the Eucharist.
55. Mary, by offering her virginal womb for the Incarnation of God’s Word, became in some way the first tabernacle – in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his light through the eyes and voice of Mary. There is a profound analogy between the Fiat of Mary and the Amen which we say when we receive the body of the Lord.
56. Mary experienced a spiritual communion which culminated in her union with her Son’s passion, expressed after Easter in her partaking of the Eucharist with the Apostles. For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross.
57. Christ gives Mary to us and we give ourselves back to her. We are conformed to Christ when we put ourselves at the school of his Mother. Mary is present, with the Church and as the mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist.
58. Both the Eucharist and the Canticle of Mary are praise and thanksgiving. In the Canticle, Mary praises God “through” Jesus, “in” Jesus and “with” Jesus. This is itself the true “Eucharistic attitude”. There is nothing greater to help us experience the mystery of the Eucharist than Mary’s spirituality through the Magnificat.
Conclusion
59. In the host and the chalice, time and space in some way “merge” and the drama of Golgotha is re-presented in a living way, thus making the sacrifice contemporary. Each person yearns for the Eucharist both consciously and unconsciously, even while our senses fail us.
60. We are called to undertake the journey of Christian living with renewed enthusiasm. Every commitment to holiness must draw the strength it needs from and be directed to the Eucharistic mystery.
61. The Eucharist must be lived in its integrity in celebration and adoration for the Church to be built up. Since the Eucharist contains the entire mystery of salvation, there can be no danger of excess in our care and providing for this mystery.
62. Through the Saints and Mary, theology of the Eucharist becomes contagious, heartwarming, illuminating and transforming. Through transubstantiation in the Eucharist, Christ enables us to become witnesses of hope.
St Paul Mystigogia 