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A Space for Grace
A Time for Eucharistic Adoration
By Bishop Joseph N. Perry
(Article: 1 of 5)
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The Spiritual Offering of Prayer The Evangelizing Power of the Rosary First Week of Advent When Sex is Consecrated to God My Journey Into Faith Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aries From "A Treatise On The Psalms" By Saint Hilary, Bishop The Celebration of The Eucharist Prayer by Thomas Merton A Vital Role in Every Parish New Life In Christ: A Reflection on the Easter Sacraments Easter 2009 From the Treatise on Spiritual Perfection Repentance: The Way Back Home NBCC Directives to Protect Unborn Children The Year of St. Paul Richness of African American faith heritage is poignantly expressed in song Finding A Closer Walk With Our Lord

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Congress X - Buffalo, New York 2007

One cannot be Catholic without a correct understanding of and approach to the Holy Eucharist. Central to our faith is a love and amazement of God's gift to his church of the abiding and Real Presence of Jesus in this Sacrament.

The late Pope John Paul II referred to the Eucharist as "the greatest treasure of the Church." This sacrament is the food of theologians, saints and mystics, the very strength of martyrs. It is the daily bread of our Christian lives.

Through the gift of a valid priesthood traced to the 12 apostles and to Jesus himself we are able to bring his body and blood down to the altar for our sustenance and sanctification. Therefore, the Church is careful to explain to believers exactly what happens on the altar. This food is meant for the transformation of our very lives!

At the Last Supper, Jesus begged his disciples not to forget him, not to forget the sacrifice of his life that was about to unfold on Calvary. "This is my body… this is my blood…Do this in memory of me," the church has taken seriously for over two thousand years.

We do not distribute crackers and grape juice here. We do not give you bread and wine at the reception of Holy Communion. This is not pageantry or make-believe anymore than the Lord's death on the cross was make-believe.

Something takes place on that altar only God can do. Therefore, what we receive is the body and blood of Christ under the signs of bread and wine. You are guaranteed this sacrament of the Lord's presence in our midst through his priesthood, the sacrament par excellence on our roster of worship. Each and every Mass is a memorial of the death of Jesus. As we proclaim after the consecration of the elements, "… we proclaim your death Lord Jesus until you come in glory!"

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch…. in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained … it is presence in the fullest sense; that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present…. It has always been the conviction of the Church… that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a 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. nos. 1324, 1374, 1376.

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