religion

Sacraments


The Eucharist: Celebrating Christ’s loving perseverance in our midst

Sacraments of Initiation

  • First two: baptism & confirmation

    • Celebrate the realities of belonging to christ

    • Being identified with him

    • Being gifted by his spirit in the community of his followers, the church 

  • Christ is truly present in the world today, through the church (us)

3 sacraments of initiation:

  • Baptism: brings new life to christ

  • Confirmation: strengthens our new life with the gifts of the holy spirit

  • Eucharist: nourishes us with the body and blood of Christ

    • BL-CS-EN

Eucharist: 

  • Ultimate sign of Christ’s presence → without this sacrament we wouldn’t have the others

  • Sharing of bread and wine, consecrated ad Jesus’ own body and blood

  • Offered by Jesus out of love for the whole world 

Initiation: 

  • First time represents the fullness of Christian initiation by most closely uniting the person with the mystery of Jesus 

  • Frequently celebrating the Eucharist becomes a way to deepen the lifelong initiation into Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection 

Central

  • All the other sacraments and dimensions of Christian living can be viewed as flowing from or leading up to Eucharist

  • The Eucharist is the “source and summit of Christian life”

    • Source: everything we have comes from  the Eucharist because it is Christ himself; source of grace and all the sacraments are oriented toward it

    • Summit - is the top of all that we seek, since it is Christ himself; there is nothing greater to reach

Ritual Meal

  • Passover

    • Jesus transformed the Passover meal

  • Eucharist derived from the word that means “thanksgiving” - Greek

    • Banquet 

Communicating God’s love

  • Jesus ate with a variety of people

  • “Do this in memory of me”

  • Last Supper - banquet whose meaning would be made clear

  • Jesus gave himself both symbolically and in deed

Eucharist

  • Symbolizes how life and human relationships should be

  • All are reconciled → we are forgiven & relationship is here

  • All are invited → welcomed

  • Forgive, make peace, sing songs

  • Lay down life for one another

Past

  • Last Supper cannot be separated from death on the cross

Today

  • Christians remember and thank God for those saving actions of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection

  • Sacrament recalls Jesus’ sacrifice, his pouring out of life in love for all humankind, to bring life to all persons

Present

  • Jesus gives of himself to us in the here and now, bringing new life to us in the process

Future

  • All God’s people will be united in love through Jesus in the “heavenly banquet” of God’s Kingdom

How is Jesus Christ Present?

  • In the gathered community

  • In the liturgical celebration

  • Words of Scripture

  • Chosen minister

  • Each individual

  • “Most especially” in eucharistic species: the bread and wine consecrated as Jesus’ body and blood

Consecration

  • 2 Main Parts of Mass

    • Liturgy of the Word - proclaiming the word of God in the Scriptures

    • Liturgy of the Eucharist - outpouring of thanks to God that includes consecration

      • WPEO

      • Consecration- through the power of the Holy Spirit and through Jesus’ words makes Christ present 

  • Consecration is most sacred moment in liturgy

  • Power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ words

  • Surpasses human knowledge 

  • Catholic theology- transubstantiation 

    • Means the bread and wine have been transformed into Jesus’ body and blood 

  • Bread and wine have become Christ present

  • Truly present 

    • Christ’s presence is not experienced fully by participants unless they (we) are truly present 

    • Imagine 

Be the Body of Christ

  • Challenged to not only receive the body of Christ 

  •  But to be the Body of Christ in our everyday life

  •  Members of the early church recognized that the Eucharist was meant to mirror the way they lived

  • What about the US today?

Questions: 

  • Are we a welcoming community?

  • Do we reach out to others to reconcile and experience genuine peace?

  • Do we nurture and sacrifice for one another?

  • Belonging, sharing, community 

Beyond our Community

  • Bread for a hungry world

  • Physical hunger and poverty

  • Hunger for hope

  • Hunger for companionship

  • Earth - hungry to be treated with justice and have its health restored

The world is hungry for:

  • Love

  • Justice

  • Peace

  • Freedom 

    • PJ-FL

    • Eucharist nourishes us

Eucharist 

  • Whole celebration of mass

  • Second part of the mass- liturgy of the eucharist 

  • Communion 

  • Blessed sacrament- bread not consumed during mass

Eucharist as Mass

  • Two parts

  • Liturgy of the Word - proclaiming the word of God through Scriptures

  • Liturgy of the Eucharist - outpouring of thanks to God that includes consecration

Essential Actions 

  1. Word - proclamation of the word of God in the Scriptures

  2. Thanksgiving - offering of thanks to God for all the blessings of creation

  3. Consecration - action of Christ 

  4. Communion - participation in receiving Christ in the bread and wine

    1. WTCC

  • Priest presides - whole assembly joining with him

**Christian community → SYMBOL OF ALL SACRAMENTS 

Communion Service 

  • Includes Liturgy of Word 

  • Rite of Communion 

  • Does not have consecration 

Proclaiming Word of God

  • *The lector proclaims the word of god

  • Not just for information

  • Opportunity to encounter God

  • Active listening

Lectionary - book of readings

  • 3 reading at Sunday Mass

  • Readings come from the Old Testament, second comes from New Testament, third are the Gospels (4)

Rituals symbolize that the proclamation of the word is special and sacred

Things said at mass: 

  • Homily - after the gospel when the priest discusses what was said in the gospel and what lessons are learned; teaching message 

  • Creed - what you believe *think creer (to believe) in spanish

  • Prayer of faithful - prayer intercessions, pray for each other (those sick, who passed away, or something that is going on)

    • HCP

Bread

  • Represents like

  • “Breaking of the bread”

    • Break bread together means eating together

  • Gift of God and work of human hands

  • Every culture has their own kind of bread

Transformed 

  • In the ritual of Eucharist bread is transformed 

  • Physical Nourishment

  • Spiritual Nourishment 

  • Breaking bread

  • Sharing bread 

  • Eating bread

  • Eating bread implies gaining life from it 

    • Nourishment 

Symbolism of Wine

  • Natural gift of God and work of human hands

  • Humans can go without food longer than without water

  • Symbolizes drink

  • Blood of Christ - life-giving sacrifice

  • Jesus’ first miracle = changing water to wine

Jewish roots: 

  • Reveals the Jewish roots of Christianity 

  • Both parts of the Mass began as Jewish rituals 

  • Father of Christianity and Judaism: Abraham 

  • First followers of Jesus were Jewish 

Passover meal

  • Jesus introduced a new ritual 

Jesus’ actions and works at Last Supper were unique 

  • Identified himself with the bread and wine 

  • Impending death

  • Source of liberation (freedom) for all 

  • “Take this and do this in memory of me” 

Jesus commanded 

  • Apostles to continue to share bread and wine 

  • As his body and blood 

Early years of the Christian church 

  • Most early Christians were Jews 

  • Synagogue service centers on Hebrew scriptures

  • Gentile converts join Christians

  • Now develop own service of the world 

  • From Saturday to Sunday 

    • Sabbath, or day of rest (Lord’s Day), changed to Sunday 

  • Basic elements of the mass become established 

Fellowship meal 

  • Agape- friendship meal in the early Church 

  • Share food 

  • As members increase→ simpler fare of bread and wine 

  • But food was still brought to share with less fortunate 

  • What part of mass: Offertory 

First three centuries

  • Evolved from fellowship meal to a ritual 

  • Basic patterns but some variations 

  • Consists of: offering, thanksgiving prayer, breaking of the bread, receiving of the bread and wine 

Realization

  • By participating in this ritual meal

  • Entering into the mystery of the Christ’s sacrifice, death and Resurrection

  • More than a love feast - participating in their own redemption

Christianity declared a legal religion in 4th century

  • Church’s rituals go public

  • 6th century - elaborate

  • Spontaneous prayers written down

  • Places of worship

  • Homes - now magnificent churches

Shift in Emphasis

  • Affects participation

  • By the Middle Ages - priests were “saying” Mass

  • People

  • Community dimension 

Progression Churches of Middle Ages: 

  • Significance of wine deemphasized 

  • Christ presence in Communion- people receive so infrequently 

  • Gathering around the table fades 

  • Alter set back 

  • Priest has back to the people

  • Language - early church was vernacular (local language) 

    • Then became Latin 

  • In the Middle Ages fewer people understood Latin 

    • Until Vatican Council II 

Vatican Council II

  • Vast reforms - in mass and eucharist

  • Now we stand while receiving communion, before we knelt down

  • Changes: PAL - K

    • Altar

    • Latin

    • Prayers and responses

    • Altar rail

      • Separated priest and alter from congregation 

    • Kneeling for Communion

    • Communion in hand

    • Reception of wine

    • Singing

    • Petition

    • Laypeople 

Simple Truth

  • Those who celebrate the Eucharist together are a symbol, with the bread and wine, of Christ’s presence

  • People are to enter actively into the Eucharist, be transformed by it, and live it out

Importance of the Eucharist

  • The Eucharist is the heart of the Church's life

  • The Eucharist is the ultimate sign of Christ’s presence. All other sacraments lead up to or flow from the Eucharist, the “source and summit of Christian life”

Shift in emphasis for Eucharist: Community meal → highly elaborate ceremony 

  • People participation lessened due to the actions of the ritual being centered around sole Priest Participation

  • As wine and bread became more of a symbol, the priest was put higher up to emphasize the importance of this sacrament, making it more of a highly elaborate ceremony.




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