Recently in Eucharist Category

Saint Peter Julian Eymard

on August 2, 2011 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gracious God of our ancestors, You led Peter Julian Eymard, like Jacob in times past, on a journey of faith. Under the guidance of Your gentle Spirit, Peter Julian discovered the gift of love in the Eucharist which Your Son Jesus offered for the hungers of humanity. Grant that we may celebrate this mystery worthily, adore it profoundly, and proclaim it prophetically for Your greater glory. Amen.

Saint Peter Julian's importance to us is identified when he was placed on the Roman liturgical calendar:

Font and fullness of all evangelization and striking expression of the infinite love of our divine Redeemer for mankind, the Holy Eucharist clearly marked the life and pastoral activity of Peter Julian Eymard. He truly deserves to be called an outstanding apostle of the Eucharist. In fact, his mission in the Church consisted in promoting the centrality of the Eucharistic Mystery in the whole life of the Christian community.

Decree of the Insertion of the Celebration of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Priest, in the General Roman Calendar, 1995.

Corpus Christi is God's expression of love that doesn't consume

Paul Zalonski

on June 27, 2011 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is only because God himself is the eternal dialogue of love that he can speak and be spoken to. Only because he himself is relationship can we relate to him; only because he is love can he love and be loved in return. Only because he is threefold can he be the grain of wheat which dies and the bread of eternal life.

Ultimately, then, Corpus Christi is an expression of faith in God, in love, in the fact that God is love. All that is said and done on Corpus Christi is in fact a single variation on the theme of love, what it is and what it does. In one of his Corpus Christi hymns Thomas Aquinas puts it beautifully: love does not consume: it gives and, in giving, receives. And in giving it is not used up but renews itself.

Since Corpus Christi is a confession of faith in love, it is totally appropriate that the day should focus on the mystery of transubstantiation. Love is transubstantiation, transformation. Corpus Christi tells us: Yes, there is such a thing as love, and therefore there is transformation, therefore there is hope. And hope gives us the strength to love and face the world.

Perhaps it was good to have experienced doubts about the meaning of celebrating Corpus Christi, for it has led us to the rediscovery of a feast which, today, we need more than ever.

Pope Benedict XVI Benedictus

The Church can't live without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reminds

Paul Zalonski

on June 26, 2011 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the Pope's Angelus address from earlier today. Notice the key points.

Today in Italy and other countries Corpus Domini is celebrated, the feast of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, which he instituted with the Last Supper and which is the Church's most precious treasure. The Eucharist is like the beating heart that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church: a social organism entirely founded on the spiritual but concrete link with Christ. As the Apostle Paul states: "Because there is one bread, we, although many, are one body: all of us in fact participate in the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Without the Eucharist the Church simply would not exist. It is the Eucharist in fact that makes a human community a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world to God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who receive it with faith, so that the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity of men with God and of men with each other.

In a culture that is ever more individualistic -- like that in which Western societies are immersed and which is spreading throughout the world -- the Eucharist constitutes a kind of "antidote," which operates in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them the logic of communion, of service, of sharing, in a word, the logic of the Gospel. The first Christians, in Jerusalem, were an evident sign of this new way of life because they lived in fraternity and held all of their goods in common so that no one should be indigent (cf. Acts 2:42-47). Where did all of this come from? From the Eucharist, that is, the risen Christ, really present with his disciples and working with the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the succeeding generations, through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits and errors, continued to be a force for communion in the world. We think especially of the most difficult periods, the periods of trial: What did it mean, for example, for countries that were under the heal of totalitarian regimes to have the possibility to gather for Sunday Mass! As the ancient martyrs of Abitene proclaimed: "Sine Dominico non possumus" - without the "Dominicum," that is, the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live. But the void produced by false freedom can be dangerous, and so communion with the Body of Christ is a medicine of the intellect and will to rediscover taste for the truth and the common good.

Dear friends, let us call upon the Virgin Mary, whom my predecessor, Blessed John Paul II defined as a "Eucharistic woman" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 53-58). In her school our life too becomes fully "Eucharistic," open to God and to others, able to transform evil into good by the power of love, which fosters unity, communion, fraternity.

Corpus Christi in Rome 2011

Paul Zalonski

on June 24, 2011 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The feast of Corpus Domini is inseparable from the Holy Thursday Mass of in Caena Domini, in which the institution of the Eucharist is also celebrated. While on the evening of Holy Thursday we relive the mystery of Christ who offers himself to us in the bread broken and wine poured out, today, in celebration of Corpus Domini, this same mystery is proposed to the adoration and meditation of God's people, and the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession through the streets of towns and villages, to show that the risen Christ walks among us and guides us towards the Kingdom of heaven. Today we openly manifest what Jesus has given us in the intimacy of the Last Supper, because the love of Christ is not confined to the few, but is intended for all. This year during the Mass of Our Lord's Last Supper on Holy Thursday, I pointed out that the Eucharist is the transformation of the gifts of this land - the bread and wine - intended to transform our lives and usher in the transformation of the world. Tonight I would like to return to this point of view.

Everything starts, you might say, from the heart of Christ, who at the Last Supper on the eve of his passion, thanked and praised God and, in doing so, with the power of his love transformed the meaning of death which he was about to encounter. The fact that the Sacrament of the altar has taken on the name "Eucharist" - "thanksgiving" - expresses this: that the change in the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is the fruit of the gift that Christ made of himself, a gift of a love stronger than death, love of God which made him rise from the dead. That is why the Eucharist is the food of eternal life, the Bread of life. From the heart of Christ, from his "Eucharistic Prayer" on the eve of his passion, flows the dynamism that transforms reality in its cosmic, human and historical dimensions. All proceeds from God, from the omnipotence of his love One and Triune, incarnate in Jesus. In this Love the heart of Christ emerges, so He knows how to thank and praise God even in the face of betrayal and violence, and thus changes things, people and the world.

Continue reading Corpus Christi in Rome 2011.

Mike Aquilina speaks on the Mass: From the Old Covenant to the New

Paul Zalonski

on May 14, 2011 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mike Aquilina is visiting us at the Siena Forum of Faith and Culture here at the Church of Catherine of Siena. In fact, it is a delight to have him, his brother and nephew here among the people of the Siena Forum. Here's a key point: "With desire I [Christ] have desired to eat this meal with you." We eat the big Passover --the Eucharist-- in order to become partakers of the Divine Nature, it is a Communio: unity of hearts and minds with the Lord. No other form of communio can substitute for the communio we have with Christ in the Eucharist.

Mike explored with us the relevant themes of the Old Testament offering of sacrifice as foreshadowed in the New. That what is seen in the Old Testament is fullfilled in Christ.

"The Eucharist is not offered for faceless of multitudes."

Continue reading Mike Aquilina speaks on the Mass: From the Old Covenant to the New.

Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization

Paul Zalonski

on December 11, 2010 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Most Reverend Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, announced today that he is sponsoring an international conference on Eucharistic Adoration to be held in Rome, Italy, 20-23 June 2011: Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization.

The Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist, a community founded in 2007 Bishop Rey is doing the organizing of the conference.

In the words of Bishop Rey: "The first condition for the new evangelization is adoration." No truer words have been spoken. And as we know so well, Eucharistic Adoration is key in the spiritual life and human flourishing and it figures prominently in the pastoral plan of Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Dominique Rey is renown for his pastoral directness and knowing Christ through sacred Scripture and the sacred Liturgy. His background includes earning a doctorate in economics and he worked for the Ministry of Finance of France. He is a priest of the Emmanuel Community and received episcopal ordination in 2000. Since becoming bishop, he's known to be supportive of the good work of new communities, the lay movements and religious orders. His agenda is the Church's: the lex orandi, lex credendi tradition. He's been an exponent of the new evangelization brought on the world stage by Pope John Paul II and continued by Pope Benedict XVI.

For more information: contact@adoratio2011.com

Media contact: Father Florian Racine: fr@adoperp.com

The press release with a list of the speakers is found here: Eucharistic congress 2011, Rome.pdf

Church of Canada priestess gives communion to a dog

Paul Zalonski

on July 27, 2010 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

AND you wonder why fewer and fewer people take the Anglican Church (or the Episcopal Church if you are American) with a degree of seriousness. Recently a Church of Canada priestess gave communion to a German Shepherd as a "simple church act of reaching out." What a gesture of welcome! This act is not only contravening "church policy" as much as it is an acknowledgement that the real Presence of Christ is not a Reality for these people. Policy is has nothing to do with it, does it? But if the Anglicans of the Church of Canada simply believe Communion is a symbol or that it represents something else.... Sounds like Joseph Campbell, Derida and many Protestant theologians (e.g. Borg, Tillich and Bultmann) are patron saints of mere symbol and not of Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity.

What comes to mind is Flannery O'Connor's famous insight when she said to hell with a symbol. O'Connor said:

"I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater.... She departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual.... Toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, "Well if it's a symbol, to hell with it." That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."

Theme for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2011 announced

Paul Zalonski

on July 12, 2010 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a theme and the theme for the 2011 observance of the Week of Prayer is One in the Apostles' Teaching, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread and Prayer.

The 2011 theme was announced by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches. The Christians in Jerusalem are the major consultants for the 2011 observance. The theme's "inspiration" comes from Acts 2:42.

For more information on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2011 and other resources, visit the website.

Christ abides with us forever in the Eucharist

Paul Zalonski

on June 10, 2010 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just as Holy Thursday and then Corpus Christi focuses our attention on the beauty of Christ's fulfillment of His promise to remain with us --in the Holy Eucharist-- so every Thursday ought to be a day of special prayer (time spent in adoration, Mass, confession of sins, reflection using the works of "eucharistic saints"). And this is the point of this blog: sharing in Communio lived with Christ in the Church among all people. But to the point here, I think any time spent with the Blessed Sacrament "touches eternity, highlighting the relationship between the Eucharistic banquet (the Mass) and the eschatological banquet in the Father's Kingdom (heaven)" (GIRM 281).

In many places where adoration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was been done "traditionally" on Fridays, the devotion has now been moved to Thursdays to be in greater connection with the Holy Thursday event of the Paschal Mystery of the Lord.

My advice for today: try to spend some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, attend Mass, go to confession, pray for the Church.

Consider what Saint Thomas Aquinas has to say about the Body and Blood of Christ from one of his sermons:

Since it was the will of God's only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us forever, he left his body as food and blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value?

Corpus Christi procession at St Mary's New Haven

Paul Zalonski

on June 6, 2010 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O sacred Banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of His Passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and pledge of future glory is given to us.

At churches around the world today we'll notice processions with the Blessed Sacrament in honor of the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (also called Corpus Christi). New Haven, Connecticut is no different: Saint Mary's Church served by the Dominican Friars celebrated the Mass and formed a procession around the block though a small portion of the Yale University neighborhood. The Very Reverend Father Joseph Allen, OP, prior and pastor of Saint Mary's presided at Mass and led the procession. Allen reminded us of Christ's gift of Presence to the Church and it is an extension of Christ's sacred humanity and divinity now, and the fruit of that presence is unity of faith and service to neighbor. Also assisting Father Allen in carrying the Blessed Sacrament is the recently ordained Dominican student brother, Brother Austin, assigned for the summer to Saint Mary's Priory and Church.

We took Christ to the streets where He is little known and if he is known there, He is often neglected. "Our faith in the God who took flesh in order to become our companion along the way needs to be everywhere proclaimed, especially in our streets and homes, as an expression of our grateful love and as an inexhaustible source of blessings" (John Paul II, Mane nobiscum Dominie, 2005)

The Corpus Christi festival clearly echoes the Holy Thursday commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist. Benedict XVI's words come to mind:

We must never forget that the Church is built around Christ and that, as St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas and St Albert the Great have all said, following St Paul (cf. 1 Cor 10:17), the Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Church's unity, because we all form one single body of which the Lord is the head. We must go back again and again to the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, where we were given a pledge of the mystery of our redemption on the Cross. The Last Supper is the locus of the nascent Church, the womb containing the Church of every age. In the Eucharist, Christ's sacrifice is constantly renewed, Pentecost is constantly renewed. (Benedict XVI, homily closing the 49th Eucharistic Conference, Quebec, June 22, 2008)

You may recall that since the 14th century a custom formed in carrying the Blessed Sacrament around town following Mass. Popes encouraged this devotional practice --even giving indulgences to those who walked with the Blessed Sacrament-- and by the 16th century, the Council of Trent approved a public demonstration of the faith in the Eucharistic Presence. Through the various periods of Church history extraordinary events and processions developed with every segment of civil society taking part. In some countries the faithful wrote "Plays of the Sacrament" or performed "Eucharistic dances" as they did in Seville (not the type done by Sister Mary Leotard) to express their faith in the enduring Presence of the Lord.

Today's Eucharistic procession stopped at stations, a typical Roman liturgical custom, for a moment of prayer with the Blessed Sacrament which included singing "Tantum ergo," the a prayer, benediction and the recitation of the Divine Praises. For us two points were selected outside the church and one at the main altar calling to mind the practice of Pope Martin V.

Holy Mother Church teaches us that her observance of Corpus Christi is a response that's both doctrinal and pertaining to Divine Worship in the face of wrong teaching on the place of the Eucharist in ecclesial life. In many places, either in CCD, preaching at Mass or in conversation among friends, the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is misrepresented or ignored. Looking at many examples of contemporary church architecture I've noticed the displacement of the Eucharist from being central to the margins of the Church (cathedrals and monastic churches excepted). This is especially crazy when pastors renovate their traditional churches and move the tabernacle to a side chapel based on a mis-reading of the church documents and a faulty eucharistic theology. If you are in the NYC area stop by at the Jesuit Church of St Francis Xavier on West 16th Street and you'll see what I mean. There the Jesuits moved the tabernacle to a side altar and replaced the traditional place for the tabernacle with components of a baptistry (a review of the recent renovation later). The concern for the Eucharist as central to one's life is obviously nothing new to us today --or in the 2000 year history of the Church-- as it was a concern of Pope Urban in 1264 when he gave the Roman Church this feast.

Let me conclude by giving two principles that articulate Catholic belief in the Eucharist and the reason why we take the Blessed Sacrament on the road:

1. the supreme reference point for Eucharistic devotion is the Lord's Passover; the Pasch as understood by the Fathers, is the feast of Easter, while the Eucharist is before all else the celebration of the Paschal Mystery ... the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ;

2. all forms of Eucharistic devotion must have an intrinsic reference to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, or dispose the faithful for its celebration, or prolong the worship which is essential to that Sacrifice (Directory of Popular Piety).

What we did today and what others around the world did, is to make a public profession of faith in the promise of Christ to be with us till the end of time in the enduring Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Corpus Christi

Paul Zalonski

on June 6, 2010 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of the glorious Body telling,
O my tongue, its mystery sing,
and the Blood, all price excelling,
which the Gentiles' Lord and King,
in a noble womb once dwelling,
shed for this world's ransoming.

Given for us, for us descending
of a Virgin to proceed,
man with man in converse blending,
scattered He the gospel seed,
till His sojourn drew to ending,
which He closed in wondrous deed.

At the last great Supper lying,
circled by His brethren's band,
meekly with the Law complying,
first He finished its command,
then, immortal Food supplying,
gave Himself with His own hand.

Word-made-flesh, by word He maketh
very bread, His Flesh to be;
man in wine Christ's Blood partaketh,
and if senses fail to see,
faith alone the true heart waketh
to behold the mystery.

Therefore we, before Him bending,
this great Sacrament revere;
types and shadows have their ending,
for the newer Rite is here;
faith, our outward sense befriending,
makes the inward vision clear.

Glory let us give and blessing
to the Father and the Son;
honor, might, and praise addressing,
while eternal ages run,
ever too His love confession,
who from Both with Both is One.
Amen.

"Pange lingua gloriosi"

Saint Thomas Aquinas

trans. John Mason Neale, Edward Caswall, et al.

The English Hymnal, 1906

Blessed Imelda Lambertini

Paul Zalonski

on May 13, 2010 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lord Jesus Christ, you received into heaven Blessed Imelda who loved you in the eucharistic banquet. By her prayers may we learn to approach your holy table with that same fervent love and so fulfill our longing to be with you, who live and reign with the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Blessed Imelda (1322-1333) is the patroness of young people receiving their First Holy Communion. An apt saint to ask for intercession from during this time of the year when so many young people are receiving the eucharistic Lord. Imelda entered the convent at age 9 but couldn't receive Holy Communion until see was 14, on the vigil of the Ascension; she died immediately thereafter in perfect communion with the Lord.

The Eucharist is the actualization of God's Kingdom today

Paul Zalonski

on December 20, 2009 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The way of peace leads to the altar and into the mystery of the Eucharist, the actualization of the Kingdom here and now. From the altar, the light of the Resurrection penetrates into all that, in our lives, remains shadowy and locked. With the Virgin of the Annunciation, we have only to believe in Love and, believing, say faith's simple "Yes." Our "little strength" is of no consequence. Let us go in to the Eucharist to be overshadowed by the power of Love. Love will do the rest for "God is love" (1 Jn 4:16 ) and " no word shall be impossible with God" (Lk 1:37). (MDMK)

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Recently in Eucharist Category

Saint Peter Julian Eymard

Corpus Christi is God's expression of love that doesn't consume

The Church can't live without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reminds

Corpus Christi in Rome 2011

Mike Aquilina speaks on the Mass: From the Old Covenant to the New

Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization

Church of Canada priestess gives communion to a dog

Theme for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2011 announced

Christ abides with us forever in the Eucharist

Corpus Christi procession at St Mary's New Haven

Corpus Christi

Blessed Imelda Lambertini

The Eucharist is the actualization of God's Kingdom today

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