EUCHARIST IS.....
During the run up to Adoramus 2018 a number of definitions of Eucharist were given. They have been reproduced below
Eucharist is… pilgrimage
The culmination of a pilgrimage may be a Mass, but the source and summit of any week as a Catholic Christian is the Eucharist.We don’t have to journey with passport and suitcase to find the healing that we need, the healing of forgiveness and inclusion in God’s family.We just have to journey to church for Mass.
Eucharist is… Real Presence
At Mass or when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for our adoration, Jesus Christ is present with us because he told us he would be. His presence shows the truth of his words recorded right at the end of Saint Matthew’s Gospels when he told us to know he is with us always. Jesus is present, but that presence demands something of us too: our presence. At Mass we are present at the Last Supper.
Eucharist is… Food for the Journey
Eucharist is… Food for the Journey. We might do well to take a moment to thank God for all that we have received, materially and in prayer. All that we have faced in our lives we did not face alone. Always God’s strength and God’s love were at work in our hearts even when, and perhaps especially when, we did not know it at all. We can pray for those for whom the journey is hard. But we can pray too that God’s strength and love will be at work in our hearts to make us bread broken for others, bringing the nourishment of God’s love to the weary and downcast.
Eucharist is… sacrifice.
Remembering Jesus’ death cannot be done simply by thinking about it. If we are to remember as we are called to remember, then we need to live as Jesus lived, think as he thought and act as he acted. We celebrate the memory of Jesus in the Eucharistic sacrifice by offering our own lives together with Jesus for the life of the world.
Eucharist is… thanksgiving
When we give thanks at Mass, the past is renewed, the present is transformed, and the future is made already present. In this thanksgiving, hope is generated by recalling past mercies. What we know from the past of the power and love of God gives us confidence in the continued mercy of God despite whatever may be going on in our lives to try us.
Eucharist is… a challenge to become what we receive
In receiving Holy Communion at Mass and in saying “Amen” to the declaration that this is the Body of Christ, we accept the challenge Saint Augustine told us this is: to become what we receive. We walk as a body of people with Christ at its head and centre, showing us the way. We walk as a body of people in which each plays a part. We walk together as one body in which each part is needed and each valued
Eucharist is…Personal Vocation
Our sending out from Mass reminds us that we were changed too by our Baptism in which we received a call from God that is both universal and personal. That is our call to holiness and we are nourished in the Eucharist so that we can respond to that universal vocation by living in the way our personal vocation demands of us. With Blessed John Henry Newman, we can pray at Mass that many people will be open to the call of God in their lives.
