Does anybody know of a good Eucharistic Theology book? I need some help

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Does anyone know of a good, orthodox (little ‘o’) Eucharistic Theology book or resource for a new Catholic? I just got out of a bible study at the Catholic student center at my university where we talked about the Eucharist. The campus minister led it, and the whole time I could feel what I think was the Holy Spirit telling me that what I was hearing was either dead wrong or a vastly incomplete version of Catholic Eucharistic Theology. He said that yes, the bread and wine become the real Body and Blood of Christ, but that the main point was the community and giving oneself to one’s neighbors. He basically reduced God to the “connectedness” (his word) of all people. He even said that in a hypothetical situation where a selfish priest says mass by himself and a thriving group of people sans priest decide to say mass, that the first situation is not Eucharist but the second is :eek:! He also said that the purpose of what we do on Sunday is to celebrate how we should be living; that we ‘do’ Eucharist whenever we are kind and loving and giving to our neighbors, and that we go to mass on Sunday to ritualize and celebrate that. He even compared it to “Wilson” the volleyball in the movie Cast Away, saying that by the end of the movie it wasn’t just a volleyball, but it was the character of “Wilson” that Tom Hanks had grown so attached to, and that that is what it means that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. Now I’m no doctor of theology, but to me that sounds more like liberal Protestantism than Roman Catholicism! This guy also led the RCIA program I just finished, so this is also how the section on Eucharist sounded, although not quite as intense, for lack of a better word. As a convert from Evangelicalism, I am really a blank slate when it comes to any Eucharistic Theology. I don’t know if this is just the old Protestant in me that feels that this is not quite right or if it is the Holy Spirit protecting me from heresy/heterodoxy. Can somebody please help me out?

I’m sorry if this post seems like a ramble, but this is really eating me up.
 
smp501 said:
Does anyone know of a good, orthodox (little ‘o’) Eucharistic Theology book or resource for a new Catholic? I just got out of a bible study at the Catholic student center at my university where we talked about the Eucharist. The campus minister led it, and the whole time I could feel what I think was the Holy Spirit telling me that what I was hearing was either dead wrong or a vastly incomplete version of Catholic Eucharistic Theology. He said that yes, the bread and wine become the real Body and Blood of Christ, but that the main point was the community and giving oneself to one’s neighbors. He basically reduced God to the “connectedness” (his word) of all people. He even said that in a hypothetical situation where a selfish priest says mass by himself and a thriving group of people sans priest decide to say mass, that the first situation is not Eucharist but the second is :eek:! He also said that the purpose of what we do on Sunday is to celebrate how we should be living; that we ‘do’ Eucharist whenever we are kind and loving and giving to our neighbors, and that we go to mass on Sunday to ritualize and celebrate that. He even compared it to “Wilson” the volleyball in the movie Cast Away, saying that by the end of the movie it wasn’t just a volleyball, but it was the character of “Wilson” that Tom Hanks had grown so attached to, and that that is what it means that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. Now I’m no doctor of theology, but to me that sounds more like liberal Protestantism than Roman Catholicism! This guy also led the RCIA program I just finished, so this is also how the section on Eucharist sounded, although not quite as intense, for lack of a better word. As a convert from Evangelicalism, I am really a blank slate when it comes to any Eucharistic Theology. I don’t know if this is just the old Protestant in me that feels that this is not quite right or if it is the Holy Spirit protecting me from heresy/heterodoxy. Can somebody please help me out?

I’m sorry if this post seems like a ramble, but this is really eating me up.
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Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Dr Brant Pitre is a combination of a book and cd… Amazing read and listen too… I hope this helps you out!

Oh, here is a little dissertation of the CD The Our Father Prayer:

The original wording is Give us this day our supersubstantial bread. This is the actual translation from the Greek Septuagint language! This is alluding to the manna of the old testament The Manna was not ordinary bread.

We are praying for the Supernatural bread that came down from heaven, which is consumed at the Eucharist! We are praying for the Manna of the new Covenant! 😃 The Old Testament manna was DAILY and SUPERNATURAL, so to the EUCHARIST is DAILY and SUPERNATURAL. Read the Catechism 2837

Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day,"128 to confirm us in trust “without reservation.” Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence.129 Taken literally (epi-ousios: “super-essential”), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality,” without which we have no life within us.130 Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: “this day” is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.
 
wasserfall said:
This is heresy.

Is the “Campus Minister” a priest?
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Campus minister. I figured out pretty early that his theology could definitely be described as more liberal than traditional (e.g the Trinity as “parent, child, and the love between them”) and I learned to take the strange sounding stuff with a grain of salt. This really bothered me though, since it seemed so different from what I’ve read here and from people like Bishop Fulton Sheen, and the Eucharist is important enough to be described as “the source and summit of our lives.”
 
It sounds like the guy’s been brainwashed by 20th century “meaningful” theology.

In general I would be very wary about modern books on the Eucharist, there’re a lot of nutty opinions out there. You can’t go wrong with the Summa.
 
BertBlyleven said:
It sounds like the guy’s been brainwashed by 20th century “meaningful” theology.

In general I would be very wary about modern books on the Eucharist, there’re a lot of nutty opinions out there. You can’t go wrong with the Summa.
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You are wrong! I know the guy that the O.P. is talking about, he has a great YouTube clip online. 😃

Religion in the Modern World
 
As someone else suggested, the Summa is hard to beat and is very detailed on this particular topic. If you don’t have a hardcopy you can read online:
Code: 
          **  [newadvent.org/summa/4073.htm](http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4073.htm)**
A good devotional book is: "The real presence: Eucharistic meditations" by Pierre Julien Eymard
- You can find used copies online. Also, you can read the entire work online: catholictradition.org/Eucharist/real-presence.htm I has Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur - I haven’t read the entire work, but it seems very good.

The older dogmatic theology manuals have traditional Eucharistic theology. Some are translated into English such as the 2 volume set by Adolphe Tanqueray.

As a side issue, a good book on Eucharistic miracles is: “Eucharistic Miracles” by Joan Carroll Cruz -

amazon.com/Eucharistic-Miracles-Joan-Carroll-Cruz/dp/0895553031
 
Oh, and also the Catechism (of the Council of Trent), specifically on the Eucharist. Muy Bueno!

Traditional Catholic theology, both Eastern and Western, never separates the Eucharist from the Mass (or Divine Liturgy), and likewise views all of the Liturgy as necessary. At Trent the contrary way of thinking, i.e. having the Eucharist but getting rid of the “unnecessary stuff” - sacrificial language and pomp - was protestant (and explicitly condemned). This line of thinking is of course very common in the Church now. Not too long ago I read an article in my diocese’s monthly publication saying the Mass is not the end result, but the Eucharist. While this isn’t incorrect, the intent behind it can be along the lines of “we can say and do anything within reason, and as long as we have the Eucharist it doesn’t matter.” This of course is contrary to central teachings on the Eucharist. And thus Communion services, et al, are allowed and [unintentionally] put on the same level as the Mass. But I digress, read the Trent Catechism.
 
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