The letters of the Apostle Paul and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament demonstrate that early Christians believed that this institution included a mandate to continue the celebration as an anticipation in this life of the joys of the banquet that was to come in the Kingdom of God. The Eucharist has formed a central rite of Christian worship. All Christians would agree that it is a memorial action in which, by eating bread and drinking wine or, for some Protestants, grape juice or water , the church recalls what Jesus Christ was, said, and did. They would also agree that participation in the Eucharist enhances and deepens the communion of believers not only with Christ but also with one another. Because of variations in both doctrine and practice, however, the Eucharist, which was intended as both a symbol of and a means of fostering unity within the church, has been a source of disunity and even contention. Many Christian traditions teach that Jesus is present in the Eucharist in some special way, though they disagree about the nature, locus, and time of that presence. In many other Christian traditions the Eucharist is symbolic or commemorative. One example of a Christian tradition that does not practice the Eucharist is Quakerism , whose adherents see the ritual as too formal and thus as constraining the experience of the Holy Spirit.


OTHER WORDS FROM Eucharist

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The text is authorized for publication by the undersigned. Monsignor William P. The Lord Jesus, on the night before he suffered on the cross, shared one last meal with his disciples. During this meal our Savior instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages and to entrust to the Church his Spouse a memorial of his death and resurrection. 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
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According to the New Testament , the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper ; giving his disciples bread and wine during a Passover meal, Jesus commanded his disciples to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the new covenant in my blood". The elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread leavened or unleavened and sacramental wine or grape juice , are consecrated on an altar or a communion table and consumed thereafter. Communicants, those who consume the elements, may speak of "receiving the Eucharist" as well as "celebrating the Eucharist". Lutherans believe the true body and blood of Christ are really present "in, with, and under" the forms of the bread and wine sacramental union. Do this in remembrance of me". The term eucharistia thanksgiving is that by which the rite is referred to [12] in the Didache a late 1st or early 2nd century document , [16] [17] [18] [19] and by Ignatius of Antioch who died between 98 and [18] [20] and Justin Martyr writing between and Other Protestant denominations rarely use this term, preferring either "Communion", "the Lord's Supper", "Remembrance", or "the Breaking of Bread".
British Broadcasting Corporation Home. An explanation of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or Mass: a re-enactment of Jesus's Last Supper of bread and wine. Christians don't say that they 'do' or 'carry out' the Eucharist; they celebrate it. In some churches, the person who takes the leading role in the ceremony is called the celebrant. The Eucharist is a re-enactment of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest, and eventual crucifixion. At the meal Jesus ate bread and wine and instructed his disciples to do the same in memory of him.