Category Archives: Ecclesia de Eucharistia

The next six numbered sections make up Chapter Five, The Dignity of the Eucharistic Celebration. This section may be of most interest to those devoted to excellent and/or solidly licit celebration of the Mass. Section 47 grounds us in the … Continue reading →

Yesterday, we read of the possibility of intercommunion when an individual’s spiritual need suggests it. Let’s read a bit more under what circumstances this might happen: 46. In my Encyclical Ut Unum Sint I expressed my own appreciation of these … Continue reading →

Intercommunion for individuals is not absolutely forbidden: 45. While it is never legitimate to concelebrate in the absence of full communion, the same is not true with respect to the administration of the Eucharist under special circumstances, to individual persons … Continue reading →

More on ecumenism: 44. Precisely because the Church’s unity, which the Eucharist brings about through the Lord’s sacrifice and by communion in his body and blood, absolutely requires full communion in the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments … Continue reading →

Other Churches, other ecclesial communities … 43. In considering the Eucharist as the sacrament of ecclesial communion, there is one subject which, due to its importance, must not be overlooked: I am referring to the relationship of the Eucharist to … Continue reading →

At first glance, this brief section seems to suggest lay people will join clergy in policing who receives and who doesn’t: 42. The safeguarding and promotion of ecclesial communion is a task of each member of the faithful, who finds … Continue reading →

Pope John Paul II describing the belief that Sunday Mass is at the heart of the Eucharist’s “effectiveness in promoting communion.” One wonders how much his own experience as a priest and bishop informed the strength of his own experience of … Continue reading →

Paul and Augustine on the Eucharist: 40. The Eucharist creates communion and fosters communion. Saint Paul wrote to the faithful of Corinth explaining how their divisions, reflected in their Eucharistic gatherings, contradicted what they were celebrating, the Lord’s Supper. The … Continue reading →

A caution against the urge to interpret Catholic liturgy as solely a Congregationalist enterprise: 39. Furthermore, given the very nature of ecclesial communion and its relation to the sacrament of the Eucharist, it must be recalled that “the Eucharistic Sacrifice, … Continue reading →

Today’s post explores why it is not permissible to give an unbaptized person Communion. Or one who does not believe what Catholics believe about the Eucharist: 38. Ecclesial communion, as I have said, is likewise visible, and finds expression in the … Continue reading →

What is the connection between Eucharist and Penance? 37. The two sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance are very closely connected. Because the Eucharist makes present the redeeming sacrifice of the Cross, perpetuating it sacramentally, it naturally gives rise to … Continue reading →

Communion with the Trinity is something that develops within a person. Not because of God but because the believer progresses in the virtues: 36. Invisible communion, though by its nature always growing, presupposes the life of grace, by which we … Continue reading →

Sharing the Eucharist implies prerequisites. Readers may be surprised to hear this involves not just one portion: faith in the Lord’s presence in the sacrament. Pope John Paul  II reiterates the traditional threefold understanding: apostolic communion the nature of the … Continue reading →

Chapter Four (numbered sections 34-46), “The Eucharist and Ecclesial Communion” begins with a reference to the 1985 Synod. The suggestion here is that the Eucharist is a means to an end, namely, union with God. 34. The Extraordinary Assembly of … Continue reading →

Let’s finish up Chapter Three as we continue a bit with yesterday’s thought … 33. When, due to the scarcity of priests, non-ordained members of the faithful are entrusted with a share in the pastoral care of a parish, they … Continue reading →