Eucharist - What are some of the earliest examples of it being celebrated as we Catholics believe it should be?

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After lightly debating with a protestant the other night, he stated “Catholic tradition has changed and evolved so often, I’m sure today it doesn’t exactly mirror the early church”

Are there any references in the book of ACTS that prove Eucharist celebration with the belief behind the Eucharist consistent with our Catholic teachings? (the Body & Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus etc)

This conversation is open for future discussion, and I think we’ll be talking about the Early Church Fathers next. Are there any specific times I can point out that in 80AD or 150AD a specfic EFC was celebrating Mass?
Thanks!
 
You can go to www.ccel.org and click on church fathers.Here you’ll find Saint Clement,Bishop of Rome,correcting the church at Corinth (about90A.D.)(St.Paul also had to correct this church).St. Clement is correcting them about the Eucharist.You’ll also find Ten yrs.later St.Ignatius explaining beliefs about the Mass.Hope this helps.May the Lord be with you.Ward:)
 
wardrandolph said:
You can go to www.ccel.org and click on church fathers.Here you’ll find Saint Clement,Bishop of Rome,correcting the church at Corinth (about90A.D.)(St.Paul also had to correct this church).St. Clement is correcting them about the Eucharist.You’ll also find Ten yrs.later St.Ignatius explaining beliefs about the Mass.Hope this helps.May the Lord be with you.Ward:)
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Clement does not talk about the Eucharist.
 
jmoburg said:
After lightly debating with a protestant the other night, he stated “Catholic tradition has changed and evolved so often, I’m sure today it doesn’t exactly mirror the early church”

Are there any references in the book of ACTS that prove Eucharist celebration with the belief behind the Eucharist consistent with our Catholic teachings? (the Body & Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus etc)

This conversation is open for future discussion, and I think we’ll be talking about the Early Church Fathers next. Are there any specific times I can point out that in 80AD or 150AD a specfic EFC was celebrating Mass?
Thanks!
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Justin Martyr wrote how the early Mass was celebrated.

“For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” Justin Martyr, First Apology, 66 (c. A.D. 110-165).

Here are some other examples.

“[T]he bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup His blood…” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, IV:18,4 (c. A.D. 200).

“He acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as his own blood, from which he bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of creation) he affirmed to be his own body, from which he gives increase to our bodies.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V:2,2 (c. A.D. 200).

“But what consistency is there in those who hold that the bread over which thanks have been given is the Body of their Lord, and the cup His Blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator of the world…” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, IV:18, 2 (c. A.D. 200).

“For the blood of the grape–that is, the Word–desired to be mixed with water, as His blood is mingled with salvation. And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and the spiritual, that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is to become partaker of the Lord’s immortality; the Spirit being the energetic principle of the Word, as blood is of flesh. Accordingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes to faith; while the other, the Spirit, conducts to immortality. And the mixture of both–of the water and of the Word–is called Eucharist, renowned and glorious grace; and they who by faith partake of it are sanctified both in body and soul.” Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, 2 (ante A.D. 202).

“Then, having taken the bread and given it to His disciples, He made it His own body, by saying, ‘This is my body,’ that is, the figure of my body. A figure, however, there could not have been, unless there were first a veritable body…He did not understand how ancient was this figure of the body of Christ, who said Himself by Jeremiah: ‘I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter, and I knew not that they devised a device against me, saying, Let us cast the tree upon His bread,’ which means, of course, the cross upon His body. And thus, casting light, as He always did, upon the ancient prophecies, He declared plainly enough what He meant by the bread, when He called the bread His own body. He likewise, when mentioning the cup and making the new testament to be sealed ‘in His blood,’ affirms the reality of His body. For no blood can belong to a body which is not a body of flesh. If any sort of body were presented to our view, which is not one of flesh, not being fleshly, it would not possess blood. Thus, from the evidence of the flesh, we get a proof of the body, and a proof of the flesh from the evidence of the blood.” Tertullian, Against Marcion, 40 (A.D. 212).
 
Justin Martyr 150 AD:
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as** long as time permits**; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day** after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration**
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chapters 61-67 of the First Apology of Justin Martyr
 
St. Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 is speaking of eating of the bread and discerning the Body. That’s pretty Eucharistic.

St. Ireneaus in the late 2nd century is combatting the gnostics, who believed Jesus was God, but not man, when he wrote of the Eucharist.

Incidentally, if you read the story of the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, you’ll find the Liturgy of the Word (Jesus explaining how the OT Scriptures pertained to Him) and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread). This happened Easter Sunday. One of Jesus’ first acts after His Resurrection was to celebrate the Mass with His Disciples.

John
 
The Didache (C. 90 - 150 A.D.): “Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; But first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one…For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord and my name is the wonder of nations’ (Malachias 1, 11,…).”

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians (C. 110 A.D.):
“Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one Flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons.”

Stillkickin
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans (C. 110 A.D.):“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”

St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, C. 66 (C. 155 A.D.):“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus…The Apostles, in the Memoirs which they produced, which are called Gospels, have thus passed on that which was enjoined upon them: that Jesus took bread and, having given thanks, said, ‘Do this in remembrance of Me; this is My Body.’ And in like manner, taking the cup, and having given thanks, He said, ‘This is My Blood.’ And He imparted this to them only.”

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (C. 180 A.D.):
“If the body be not saved, in fact, neither did the Lord redeem us with His Blood; and neither is the cup of the Eucharist the partaking of His Blood nor is the Bread which we break the partaking of His Body.”

St. Athanasius, Sermon to the Newly Baptized (370 A.D.):
“Let us approach the celebration of the mysteries. This bread and this wine, so as long as the prayers and supplications have not taken place, remain simply what they are. But after the great prayers and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine - and thus is His Body confected.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, Explanation of the Psalms (C. 400 A.D.):
“‘And he was carried in his own hands.’ But, brethren, how is it possible for a man to do this? Who can understand it? Who is it that is carried in his own hands? A man can be carried in the hands of another; but no one can be carried in his own hands. How this should be understood literally of David, we cannot discover; but we can discover how it is meant of Christ. For Christ was carried in His own hands, when, referring to His own Body, He said:‘This is My Body’ for He carried that Body in His hands.”
 
jmoburg said:
After lightly debating with a protestant the other night, he stated “Catholic tradition has changed and evolved so often, I’m sure today it doesn’t exactly mirror the early church”

Are there any references in the book of ACTS that prove Eucharist celebration with the belief behind the Eucharist consistent with our Catholic teachings? (the Body & Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus etc)

This conversation is open for future discussion, and I think we’ll be talking about the Early Church Fathers next. Are there any specific times I can point out that in 80AD or 150AD a specfic EFC was celebrating Mass?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
jmoburg,

Put this in your back pocket.

This is fascinating. The roman author Tacitus in 109 A.D. says he hates Nero. He says he is brutal and has no justification for persecuting the christians. But he says it is not like they don’t deserve it, because they are “haters of humanity”. Which implies canabilism. The christians were suspected of canabilism because they talked about eating the flesh and blood of a man.

The Catholic Church does not mirror the early church.🤷 The Catholic Church IS the early church.😃 People are without excuse with all of the information that is at our finger tips.:confused: The only bible christians are Catholics.👍

Good luck and remember to pray that he will be given the grace to come home to Christ’s Church.

Peace,
David
 
Everyone who has replied is so well equipped – it’s truly amazing. Those TV commercials for Verizon wireless, where the entire network and tech staff congregates behind the one customer on the phone (its the network they say)… I feel that Catholic Answers is my Network, behind me and always at my fingertips - always helpful. Thanks everyone!
 
jmoburg said:
Everyone who has replied is so well equipped – it’s truly amazing. Those TV commercials for Verizon wireless, where the entire network and tech staff congregates behind the one customer on the phone (its the network they say)… I feel that Catholic Answers is my Network, behind me and always at my fingertips - always helpful. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Can you hear me now? Good! 🙂

Uh, what Verizon commercial?
 
In the Acts of the Apostles, the Eucharist is referred to as the “breaking of the bread,” as in Acts 2:42. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” This is a brief reference to their liturgical life. In Acts 2:46 it says that “Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and the breaking of the bread in their homes.”

In these early years, the Church in Judea was primarily Jewish in nature. Note that the apostles continued to meet in the temple area for prayers, while the newly established Eucharist was celebrated in their homes. Ultimately the Jewish leaders barred them from the temple and synagogues, leading to the combination of the prayers and the breaking of the bread into a unified liturgy. It’s what we still have today—the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist.
 
Luke 22:20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

Heb:12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

The Eucharistic liturgy brings about full union with angels in festal gathering, the just spirits, and God Himself, which takes place in the assembly or “ecclesia” (the Church). we couldn’t come to Jesus’ sprinkled blood if it were no longer offered by Jesus to the Father and made present for us in the Eucharist.

Peace,

Ryan 🙂
 
If you look carefully at the older translation of “Father, We Thank Thee Who Has Planted”, you will find that is based almost entirely on the Didache.

Plus, the Gospel narratives of the Last Supper give you, by far, the earliest example of how the Church understood the Eucharist. If you want to go back farther, just look at the 6th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Some in the crowd are saying that Jesus’ words are too much to bear and they leave. Jesus then asks his disciples if they are leaving, too. St. Peter (in what Pope Benedict XVI considers to be a confession and profession of faith) says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
 
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