Eucharist vs Communion: What is distinction?

[PJM]

=atassina;7484706]What is the distinction between calling the most holy sacrifice of the altar “The Eucharist” or “Most Holy Communion”? What is the distinction between the different labels? Happy parsing.

IF one is speaking of the terms as applied by the Catholic Church; the ONLY difference is the terms [having the SAME meaning] themselves.

IF one is comparing Catholic Most Holy Ecuahrist to ANY protestant “holy communion”; the difference is the Reality of jesus Chrsit true Glorified Presence; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity; THE COMPLETE JESUS!

God Bless,
Pat

 

[atassina]

Distinction understood. Our discussion revolves how we as Catholics use these terms in both an exact and general sense. See entries #7 and #12. Gotta go. Our pre-deacon and his wife are giving an NFP presentation at my adults sacraments class tonight.

 

[zalzankavol]

Eucharist is a greek word, and it is a verb that means to give thanks. “Eucharistoumen” is the Greek for “we give thanks.” Since it also came to reference the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross (for which we give thanks), we speak of “receiving” the eucharist but it has a much deeper meaning than just receiving the host or the host itself. It entails our acceptance and reverence of what we receive.

Since we as Catholics believe that Christ is not sacrificed overe and over again, but rather we participate and give thanks for that one sacrifice each time we receive the eucharist.

really quite beautiful when you think about it.

Paul and the didache are the earliest references we have to the use of the word Eucharist, so I would search for commentaries on its usage therein.