{"id":26498,"date":"2011-06-26T21:53:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T01:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/06\/the-church-cant-live-without-t\/"},"modified":"2011-06-26T21:53:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T01:53:16","slug":"the-church-cant-live-without-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/06\/the-church-cant-live-without-t\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church can’t live without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reminds"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Here’s the Pope’s Angelus address from earlier today. Notice the key points.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\"girl<\/a>Today in Italy and other countries Corpus Domini is
\ncelebrated, the feast of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of
\nthe Lord<\/u>, which he instituted with the Last Supper and which is the Church’s
\nmost precious treasure<\/b>. The Eucharist is like the beating heart that gives life
\nto the whole mystical body of the Church<\/i><\/b>: a social organism entirely founded on
\nthe spiritual but concrete link with Christ. As the Apostle Paul states: “Because
\nthere is one bread, we, although many, are one body: all of us in fact
\nparticipate in the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
Without the Eucharist the
\nChurch simply would not exist. It is the Eucharist in fact that makes a human
\ncommunity a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world
\nto God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine into the Body and
\nBlood of Christ, also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who
\nreceive it with faith, so that<\/u> the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity<\/u>
\nof men with God<\/u> and of men with each other<\/u><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
In a culture that is ever more
\nindividualistic — like that in which Western societies are immersed and which
\nis spreading throughout the world — the Eucharist constitutes a kind of “antidote,”<\/u>
\nwhich operates in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them
\nthe logic of communion, of service, of sharing<\/b><\/i><\/u>, in a word, the logic of the
\nGospel. The first Christians, in Jerusalem, were an evident sign of this new
\nway of life because they lived in fraternity and held all of their goods in
\ncommon so that no one should be indigent (cf. Acts 2:42-47). Where did all of
\nthis come from? From the Eucharist, that is, the risen Christ<\/u>, really present
\nwith his disciples and working with the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the
\nsucceeding generations, through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits
\nand errors, continued to be a force for communion in the world. We think
\nespecially of the most difficult periods, the periods of trial: What did it
\nmean, for example, for countries that were under the heal of totalitarian regimes
\nto have the possibility to gather for Sunday Mass! As the ancient martyrs of
\nAbitene<\/u> proclaimed: “Sine Dominico non possumus” – without the “Dominicum,” that is, the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live<\/b>. But the
\nvoid produced by false freedom can be dangerous, and so communion with the Body
\nof Christ is a medicine of the intellect and will to rediscover taste for the
\ntruth and the common good.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Dear friends, let us call upon the Virgin Mary, whom
\nmy predecessor, Blessed John Paul II defined as a “Eucharistic woman”
\n(Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 53-58). In her school our life too becomes fully “Eucharistic,”
\nopen to God and to others, able to transform evil into good by the power of
\nlove, which fosters unity, communion, fraternity.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading The Church can’t live without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reminds<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2105,32103,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}