Holy Communion is the 4th of the 7 sacraments of The Catholic-Christian faith. Holy Communion is defined as a "christian service, ceremony, and sacrament commemorating the Last Supper of our Lord, in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed." -Catechism Of The Catholic Church. This sacrament is carried out during one of the final parts of a Catholic Mass (church service) and it is the highlight of the service, even above the incredible theologically rich scripture readings!
During Holy Communion, a special bread is consecrated, and this bread is referred to as 'The Eucharist'. The Eucharist as it physically appears, just looks like any ordinary piece of bread, but it is really much more than that. During Holy Communion, The Eucharist is consecrated by the priest and then broken to be consumed by the faithful at mass in a holy and reverent manner.
So what is really going on here? And why is it deemed so special by catholics? Well, what's special about it all is actually the reality that something much more profound lays beyond the merely physical appearance of the small piece of bread. In reality, this bread is actually the full presence of Jesus Christ our lord! And he is fully present in the bread in his body, blood, soul and divinity. Sounds crazy doesn't it! For the outsider who's never heard of this, hearing this at first it can be very tempting to quickly walk away from such a teaching.
Although, despite what people may immediately think, it is very much a reality, and so that is why it is absolutely worth exploring in further detail. As Jesus desired this communion with his creation more than anything else on the planet. There is nothing more pleasing to him that you could do in this world, then to receive Jesus in this way in a state of grace in your soul.
So the first thing worth noting is that The Sacrament of Holy Communion was first established by Jesus himself, not The Catholic Church somewhere down many years in history, as many today unfortunately believe, but rather is was there from the beginning. One key bible verse that always rings in my ears every time I ponder upon and partake in this blessed sacrament is this: "with man these things seem impossible, but with God all things are possible"(Matthew 19:26). I invite you to meditate on this scripture in light of this teaching too....
Another key thing we must do when we investigate this teaching and sacrament is really observe our christian history, which is fully Catholic dominated believe it or not. When we do our research, we see that Jesus very much so made his teachings very clear on The Eucharist in scripture. He specifically states in most places that this 'living bread' that he is going to give us one day is actually that of himself, and his 'flesh', and that it a necessary component of our salvation.
When we look at the context of how Jesus was speaking during John chapter 6 in The New Testament of The Holy Bible for example, we see that Jesus was really staking his life on what he was saying and that he wasn't just being in a symbolic sense alone in his context of preaching, which is actually why so many people such a hard time trying to understand him and so they scoffed and walked away. Some key verses from John chapter 6 included statements from Jesus such as this... “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will live because of me." (John 6:53-57)
After Jesus taught about The Eucharist from time to time during his Earthly ministry, it wasn't until the very end of his life on Earth during The Last Supper that he first celebrated the ceremony of Holy Communion himself with his disciples. This sacrament was first established by Jesus here ultimately as an establishment of a new or I guess you could even say 'renewed' covenant between man and God where the sacrament is also very much intertwined with his eventual death on the cross and his resurrection and ascension. We as his faithful are called to partake in this divine communion with him.
Over the last 2000 years this sacred ceremony has been carried out by Jesus' church from generation to generation after his leading example here at the last supper.
The Eucharistic ceremony is the source and summit of The Catholic Faith, where we get to receive probably the most amazing gift and grace Jesus has on offer for us, receiving that of Jesus himself! Engaging in the sacrament of Holy Communion is the high point of our faith as Christians. Also is also important to note that before we partake in this sacrament we firstly need to be in a state of grace from past sins that may be on our souls, so therefore we must have been baptised, confirmed and reconciled with God through those sacraments beforehand.
Now, thats about all the key information regarding this sacrament that I'll be touching on with you in this blog today, but there is honestly so much more that can even be learnt about it that I could go on and on about, but for time and length sake that's the fundamentals of our Catholic faith teachings. Please do keeping researching, observing, meditating and praying about this big topic in a spirit of love and humility for Gods truths to be made known to you. One other thing that I also highly recommend is researching 'Eucharistic miracles' as they are also such solid pieces of evidence that Jesus is communicating to us today to show us that he really is fully present and manifested in this holy sacrament.
Finally I say, let's keep striving to know, love and serve our God more and more. If you do this, you will be brought into the light of truth and abide in God forever in due time, God Bless you.
God bless, love and keep you!
-Benjamin, Light Of The World Ministries.
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God bless, love and keep you! :)
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