For Christians, the Eucharist is the Eucharist or sacrament instituted by Jesus on the eve of his passion and death, at the Last Supper. The term derives from the greek εὐχαρίστω (eucharist: to give thanks). The New Testament records the institution of the Eucharist in four sources: Matthew 26.26-28; 14.22-24 Mark, Luke 22.19-20; 1 Corinthians 11.23-25. The origin of the Eucharist
According to the story of the Gospels, as interpreted by the Roman Catholic, Jesus, Last Supper, he distributed to his disciples the bread and wine as his body and his blood, offered as a sacrifice for the salvation men and tasked to do the same in its "memory." The Roman Catholic Church, then, since its origins, celebrated the Eucharist as a sacramental act of commitments lasciatigli by Jesus himself, his God and Saviour founder. The Eucharist is the sacrificial action during which the priest offers the bread and wine to God, which, by the Holy Spirit, they become really the Body and Blood of Christ, the same Body and the Blood offered by Jesus on the cross. The altar is the cross on which is true in every Mass the sacrifice and the same (in this case bloodless) of the victim: the paschal lamb, that Jesus With the distribution of S. Communion, where there are the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, the faithful are in communion with God and a foretaste of its property, demand atonement for their sins, implore the blessing of God and ask for the suffrage the souls of the dead.
Protestant Christians, who do not believe that the Mass (or Eucharist Celebration) is made present the sacrifice of the Cross, and do not believe in transubstantiation simply call it using only the name of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.
non-Christian theories about the origins of the Eucharist
According to some non-Christians, under the mythical theories on the origin of Christianity, the Eucharist is comparable with ceremonies and legendary mystery cults teofagici (ie, ritual cannibalism) contemporary with the first Christian communities, taken by the intervention of Paul of Tarsus, which would allow a merger with Jewish sect founded in fact Christianity.
practitioners of the mystery cults through the development of the conviction, for which it was believed that eating the innards of the enemy killed and drink his blood would be treated as his virtues, came to the conclusion that they built their god of immortality by drinking the blood of animals that were sacrificed in his honor, animals that were later assimilated to the gods so as to become themselves the real divinity. After having their throats cut, in the belief that these animals were the personification of the god who represented the followers drank blood and ate the insides to incorporate through them the divine essence which contained, first of all the immortality which would allow them to living a second life eternal after the resurrection from the dead. This form of
teofagia, that is, of communion with their god through the engulfment of the animal that represents it, is still practiced by some tribes in Africa, New Zealand and among some peoples of South America. Later, with the evolution of ceremonies, the first blood was drunk directly from the neck of the animal was collected in cups that were passed to the faithful that if they brought in turn to his mouth between songs, prayers and propitiatory magic acts performed by priests whose clothes and whose shares appeared to be similar to those of their corresponding subsequent Christians. In a second phase, an official in the fact that not everyone was pleased to drink blood, this was replaced with the wine that had to be red and sweet because it equaled as possible.
The first use of wine instead of blood was practiced in Egypt 1500 years before Christ by the priests of the goddess Isis.
The ceremony for the transformation of the wine into the blood of the deity is shown by graffiti era. At a fixed point of the ceremony, the priest performed the consecration, saying
"You are a wine wine, but you're not because you are the innards of Isis. "
After that, he took the cup that holds it out to the faithful knelt in turn passed it if thanking the gods as a dispenser of grace and eternity. Other authors claim that this ritual was very similar to that of Christianity, practiced always in ancient Egypt, was to eat loaves of bread which take the form of Osiris, god of the strength to purchase.
In the worship of Attis and Cybele, the ceremony took on the importance of collective feasts. Between songs and music were consumed these meals Community that according to these scholars were called "Eucharistic Banquet," in which these scholars claim to find similarities with the meetings of communicants followers of Christianity.
Of the celebrations of Attis and Cybele were recovered tablets show that the formulas of thanksgiving for the faithful pronounced after drinking the wine that had turned in the blood of divinity: "I have mixed with Attis," said the believer and the priest taking the chalice he added: "The good and beautiful, you also become a god, now you can conquer death."
Those who first introduced the bread in the sacrament of the Eucharist as a substance convertible in the body were the priests of the god Dionysus, who, as god of fertility and abundance, was symbolized by a grain of wheat. At one point, the consecrations were performed by all religions on these two elements, so that in some of them would be found equal to those formulas which are still practiced by the Christian religion. But this practice of the Eucharist, which went on for several centuries, though it was supported by prayers and rituals that had become increasingly more complex and elaborate in their manifestations of signs made magic in the air and cryptic formulas began to seem increasingly doubtful because of that evolution that led to the theological question: "How can a god to man the power of the resurrection if he does not possess it, as being eternal is not dead? " So, for that "nemo dat quod non Habet" (no one can give what he has not), theologians thought to pagan gods descend to earth and became men, might die and then rise again to capture the power of the resurrection to be transmitted men. Consequently, because they are all now able to transmit the salvation of men, were called "Soteroi, ie Salvatori.
The Eucharist in the Catholic Church
Meaning of the Eucharist The Eucharist is closely associated with Easter, with the death and resurrection of Jesus The basic fact that links the two events is the Last Supper: the founding 'announcing the Eucharist and Easter. Christ celebrated the Passover, but gives a new meaning. The old alliance between the people of Israel and God on Mount Sinai was sealed with the blood of a sacrifice, so also the new and definitive covenant of the new Israel is sealed by the sacrifice of Christ, true Lamb who "takes away the sin of the world" that "reconciles humanity with his creator. "In the Jewish Passover meal, consisting of unleavened bread and bitter herbs, there is the remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt and the exodus event itself. In the Christian Passover meal - the Eucharist, in fact - it helps to reappear alive and true passion of the death of the Son of God, free of sin and "reconciles his love in the world." Therefore, Jesus says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this is the new Passover Lamb.
The Apostle Paul writes: "Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." It is necessary to dwell especially on the understanding of the Eucharist as a memorial (anamnesis): this term in the biblical context - ie, with the Hebrew word "zikkaron" - indicates ritual actions related to an event (saving) in the past, however, able to update it, making this the celebrants in saving his own size, and projecting well into the future. And in the memorial design
Christian denominations find consensus in the statement: "The Eucharist is the memorial of Jesus crucified and risen, that is living and effective sign of his sacrifice, accomplished once for all on the cross and still operative in favor of all mankind "(Baptism, Eucharist, ministry, ecumenical document of Lima, 1982).
The consecration of the Eucharist Messa.L during the 'whole of the Eucharistic celebration (and thus the Eucharistic liturgy and liturgy of the word) is the memorial of the whole mystery of Christ, centered in His death and resurrection; is the Eucharistic prayer, in particular, pervaded by the theme the memorial.
According to the Catholic Church, in the consecrated bread and wine, also known as the Blessed Sacrament, there is the real presence of Christ himself, in body, blood, soul and divinity. The continual re-enactment of this great mystery is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. For the Catholic and Orthodox Christians the same Mass is actually a renovation of the Last Supper (or "the continuation in a communion of saints which unites those present at the Mass to those who died before their Christian "). The priest who celebrates the Eucharist, acting in persona Christi, he invokes the power of the Holy Spirit. According to the Catholic Church, is thus transubstantiation, or change "over the substance" (trans-substantia) of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. For Christians, every Eucharist, as the event sacrificial memorial of Christ is a sacrifice in timely manner: The Church considers the Lord's gift and makes his sacrifice. This calls on the faithful to offer themselves to God in obedience and devotion, because - as yet Paul writes - "anyone in an unworthy manner eats the bread or drinks the cup the Lord shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Each man should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink this cup, for he who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks his own condemnation. "As the communion of the Lord's Supper, Eucharist the faithful are the foundation, the source and the bond of union among themselves and with Christ.
In the first century AD, the celebration of the Eucharist was very simple: it was a commemoration of the Last Supper and the breaking of bread between brothers. It was celebrated on Sundays at the meetings of the early Christians, as we witness the writings of St. Justin. For many evangelical Christian denominations the commemoration of the Last Supper in this way is still
The Catholic Mass
The celebration of the Eucharist (said Mass in the Latin rites) consists of two parts, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, they are so closely together to form a single act of worship. In it, is so laden "the table of God's word" as "the table of the Body of Christ, the faithful may be instructed and refreshed. There are also certain rites that open and conclude the celebration because the Eucharist is the center and summit of Christian life.
Christ in the Eucharist, the Word and in the assembly
The Eucharist is celebrated by an ordained minister (priest), in the Mass: it is the whole of the liturgy of the word and the eucharistic liturgy, open to input from the rites and rituals in the closed end.
Procession with the Blessed Sacrament of the Catholics in Poland (Stargard Szczeciński) The Second Vatican Council teaches that you can see the Lord's presence in the assembly gathered in his name, the priest celebrating in persona Christi, proclaimed in the Bible "as it is He is speaking as you read Scripture in the Church ", in the sacrifice of the Mass" that being himself, offering himself once on the cross, offering himself again through the Ministry of priests, especially in the Eucharistic species "(Sacrosanctum Concilium).
This road passes on the rapprochement between Catholicism and Protestantism: in fact this had challenged the positions of the Catholic Church which placed emphasis on the real presence of the Lord in the bread and wine Eucharistic and in ecumenical document Baptism, Eucharist, ministry, we read: "It is by virtue of the living word of Christ and the power of the Spirit that the bread and wine become the sacramental signs of the body and blood of Christ. They remain so in view of communion. "
The Catholic Church and the Orthodox claim that the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species remain until the their consumption: thus the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle (or tabernacles) to be worshiped, but also and above all as a reserve for the communion to the sick and dying (in this case we use the term "Viaticum").
In the Catholic Church there are specific rituals for Eucharistic adoration. The "Body of Christ" is exposed in the adoration of the faithful. A priest can also impart the Eucharistic blessing to the faithful in the consecrated Bread, usually the end of the rite of worship.
The Church celebrates the Eucharist every day (except Friday, when neither bread nor wine are consecrated), but in particular it is solemnized in day of its creation, the Holy Thursday Mass in the Lord's Supper. However, not being able to externalize all the solemnity that day of Holy Week (which, as such, requires a context of sobriety), the festival is postponed to Thursday the first week after Pentecost: This is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the Corpus Domini. In most Catholic countries, however, this holiday of obligation is deferred until the following Sunday (the second after Pentecost).
Bread path
John records the words of Jesus: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day" and "abide in me and I in him" (Jn 6.54 to 56). The Eucharist is thus a pledge of immortality, and the sacrament of communion with Christ.
According to the Catholic Church is renewed in every Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ for the world, God's new covenant with man: the Lord gives new human food and new strength to the Church to be faithful witnesses in the streets of world, ready to follow with their own lives his life given in service to all. For this reason the Church calls on Christians to attend Mass every Sunday and receive sacramental communion at least at Easter: the complete participation in the Eucharist can not ignore this its foundation that it is the communion of the body Christ left by Christ Himself to Christians, even as responsibility.
Although Eucharistic miracles of transubstantiation (the transformation of the substance of bread and wine into the true Body and Blood of Christ) is in accordance with the Catholic faith is a great mystery of the sacramental species (namely the accidental appearance) of bread and wine but usually remain intact, and therefore there is no miracle. However, in the history of the Church are given many Eucharistic miracles, of which sets out some examples. According to the narrative Church, the consecrated bread in the Mass was often visually Flesh and Blood, for example, Lancaster and Bolsena, Trani to a woman who had stolen consecrated host saw it transformed into meat during his act of sacrilege, an unbeliever in Padua to challenge his mule kept fasting for three days, then in the square, opposite the famous monk St. Anthony, put them in front of a fine beam hay and a bucket of water, but the mule turned decisively away and knelt in front of the 'straight from the holy sacrament of the monstrance. In other cases would have occurred or levitations beautiful illuminations of the Host. The chance of not a few of the healings recorded in Lourdes would be the blessing of the Eucharist in the evening. Some of the faithful (already declared a saint is not yet sufficient: Therese Neumann for example) is said to have lived for years eating only some or many Communion daily, without taking any other food or drink.
The Eucharist in the Orthodox Church
The Eucharistic celebration of the Orthodox Church is also called the Divine Liturgy. For this Communion Church uses leavened bread wheat and red wine mixed with warm water in the glass. The bread prepared for the Communion is called Lamb. The knife with which the celebrant cut out the particles from prosphora (the consecrated bread for communion) is called a spear, in memory of those who pierced Christ after his death on the cross. The Eucharist is always distributed in the two species. The Body and Blood of Christ are administered by the celebrant of gold through a long spoon. After the acclamation Deacon: "With the fear of God and faith, draw near!", those who want to communicate they put their hands in the shape of a cross on his chest and going to the cup, called Potir, communicate. One or two Deacons hold a veil in the individual communicants, to avoid falling into the Sacred Species and also to dry the lips of those who receive the Blood of Christ. After Communion, the faithful kiss the bottom of the cup and goes to a small table where the ministers give to drink a hot liquid blessed (water and wine) and eat a piece of blessed bread. In Orthodoxy, since there are no age limits: mass is distributed to children or infants, if they have been baptized. To these, unable to swallow is given only in the blood of Christ.
The Eucharist in Protestant Christianity
Protestants generally call the Eucharist the Lord's Supper. The positions on its meaning is different, but can be traced to three major interpretations, that of Luther, in favor of consubstantiation, to Zwingli, a supporter of a purely symbolic bread and wine and, finally, that of John Calvin which is to a spiritual presence and a real contribution to the body of Christ.
