Need Info on Holy Communion

[catholic_gal]

Hello all,

I was hoping to pick your brains on the sacrament of Holy Communion.

A bit of background: I’m a mentor with Life Teen at my church, and for this semester, we’re teaching the kids about the sacraments. When I decided to cover Holy Communion, I did not think at the time about how vast the subject was. Not that I’m complaining. In teaching these kids, I’ve also learned a great deal myself.

Nevertheless, for someone who’s been actively Roman Catholic her entire life, there’s still a lot I don’t know about this particular sacrament. That the Body and Blood of Christ is indeed present in the Eucharist, I know. I also know the origins of the sacrament, and all the basics. So do these teens.

I guess what I’m asking for is any insight into the sacrament that is not widely known. After all, these teens have definitely already received their First Communion, so I don’t want to regurgitate the same old lesson. That being said, is there anything you all think might be of interest to these teens, or change their perspective on Holy Communion? I would like to share with them (and learn myself) something deeper about the sacrament.

Hope I haven’t confused you all too much!

At any rate, I welcome any and all (name removed by moderator)ut on the subject matter. Thanks so much, and God bless you!

 

[Don9of11]

I recently finished reading Seven Secrete of the Eucharist by Vinny Flynn. It’s a wonderful book, the chapters are short and the text is very simple and easy to read. If you are looking for ways to increase your devotion and learn more about the truths of the Eucharist this then is an excellent read. I highly recommend it.

 

[dusza]

Perhaps this may be helpful:

audiosancto.org/categories/sacraments.php

God bless.

 

[Bookcat]

This document from Pope Benedict XVI is on the Holy Eucharist…it will be of great help

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis_en.html

and of course there is the Catechism… vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm

the Holy Eucharist IS the body and the blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ…It is Jesus Christ our Lord…this is always the starting point…

but you will find alot of great things in that document…

 

[SirKnight2007]

I’ll go with a story I was told today, but I forget where the actual source is, you may have to look it up:

During Pope John Paul II’s first trip to the United States, something very remarkable happened. Because of the nature of the Pope’s office, all building’s were “cleared” by police, federal agents and police dogs looking for people or things that shouldn’t be there. Well, they went into the Cathedral which had “nobody” in it. The police dog was very silent and did it’s normal job. However, upon reaching the area of the Tabernacle, the police dog went CRAZY!! All of the sudden the dog was barking, trying to run towards the tabernacle. These dogs are trained to find people in areas such as these that need to be cleared. The fact that there was no human beings other than police in the building, but the dog acted when it came on Christ in the Tabernacle, is a true testament to what we believe; that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity!

I hope this helps.

 

[kage_ar]

Eucharistic Miracles!

Do some research into these, watch a video about them.

bobandpennylord.com/euch.htm

Eucharistic Adoration - go to Adoration.

Is there an Eastern Rite or EF Parish nearby where you can go celebrate the Eucharist in another way?

 

[Monica4316]

Tell them about Adoration

and it might be interesting to talk about some Eucharistic miracles, like Lanciano, and some stories from lives of the Saints? that’s not really that well known…

God bless

 

[puzzleannie]

assuming they already have a good understanding of what is really happening at Mass, introduce them to Eucharistic adoration and the spirituality of that devotion.

If they complain about going to Mass, or not getting “anything out of it” focus on that aspect, especially the Eucharistic prayers, what is actually said and done and the reality that it brings about.

 

[joplee]

I recently finished reading Seven Secrete of the Eucharist by Vinny Flynn. It’s a wonderful book, the chapters are short and the text is very simple and easy to read. If you are looking for ways to increase your devotion and learn more about the truths of the Eucharist this then is an excellent read. I highly recommend it.

If your short on time, Catholicity.com has a 55 minute talk by Vinny Flynn titled, “Seven Secrets of the Eucharist,” same as his book. Here is the link. catholicity.com/cds/cds.html

 

[benedictgal]

The homilies written and preached by Pope Benedict XVi give a solid catechesis on the Eucharist. This is what he preached back in 2007 during the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper:

Jesus truly shed his blood on the eve of Easter at the time of the immolation of the lambs.
In all likelihood, however, he celebrated the Passover with his disciples in accordance with the Qumran calendar, hence, at least one day earlier; he celebrated it without a lamb, like the Qumran community which did not recognize Herod’s temple and was waiting for the new temple.

Consequently, Jesus celebrated the Passover without a lamb - no, not without a lamb: instead of the lamb he gave himself, his Body and his Blood. Thus, he anticipated his death in a manner consistent with his words: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (Jn 10: 18).

At the time when he offered his Body and his Blood to the disciples, he was truly fulfilling this affirmation. He himself offered his own life. Only in this way did the ancient Passover acquire its true meaning.

In his Eucharistic catecheses, St John Chrysostom once wrote: Moses, what are you saying? Does the blood of a lamb purify men and women? Does it save them from death? How can the blood of an animal purify people, save people or have power over death? In fact, Chrysostom continues, the immolation of the lamb could be a merely symbolic act, hence, the expression of expectation and hope in One who could accomplish what the sacrifice of an animal was incapable of accomplishing.
The Lamb and Temple

Jesus celebrated the Passover without a lamb and without a temple; yet, not without a lamb and not without a temple. He himself was the awaited Lamb, the true Lamb, just as John the Baptist had foretold at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1: 29).

And he himself was the true Temple, the living Temple where God dwells and where we can encounter God and worship him. His Blood, the love of the One who is both Son of God and true man, one of us, is the Blood that can save. His love, that love in which he gave himself freely for us, is what saves us. The nostalgic, in a certain sense, ineffectual gesture which was the sacrifice of an innocent and perfect lamb, found a response in the One who for our sake became at the same time Lamb and Temple.

Thus, the Cross was at the centre of the new Passover of Jesus. From it came the new gift brought by him, and so it lives on for ever in the Blessed Eucharist in which, down the ages, we can celebrate the new Passover with the Apostles.

Remember, not only is he a preeminent theologian, he was also a professor, so his homilies certanly have a teaching element. You might also want to look at his book, “God is Near”, which is about the Eucharist.

You might also want to teach the teens some of the sacred chants of the Church, including Pange Lingua, which is chanted on Holy Thursday. These chants actually are a synthesis of the teachings of the Church and were written by no less than St. Thomas Aquinas himself.

 

[benedictgal]

Here is the homily that the Holy Father preached on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi back in 2008:

The second constitutive aspect is walking with the Lord. This is the reality manifested by the procession that we shall experience together after Holy Mass, almost as if it were naturally prolonged by moving behind the One who is the Way, the Journey. With the gift of himself in the Eucharist the Lord Jesus sets us free from our “paralyses”, he helps us up and enables us to "proceed ", that is, he makes us take a step ahead and then another step, and thus sets us going with the power of the Bread of Life. As happened to the Prophet Elijah who had sought refuge in the wilderness for fear of his enemies and had made up his mind to let himself die (cf. I Kgs 19: 1-4). But God awoke him from sleep and caused him to find beside him a freshly baked loaf: “Arise and eat”, the angel said, “else the journey will be too great for you” (I Kgs 19: 5,7). The Corpus Christi procession teaches us that the Eucharist seeks to free us from every kind of despondency and discouragement, wants to raise us, so that we can set out on the journey with the strength God gives us through Jesus Christ. It is the experience of the People of Israel in the exodus from Egypt, their long wandering through the desert, as the First Reading relates. It is an experience which was constitutive for Israel but is exemplary for all humanity. Indeed the saying: “Man does not live by bread alone, but… by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Dt 8: 3), is a universal affirmation which refers to every man or woman as a person. Each one can find his own way if he encounters the One who is the Word and the Bread of Life and lets himself be guided by his friendly presence. Without the God-with-us, the God who is close, how can we stand up to the pilgrimage through life, either on our own or as society and the family of peoples? The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the God who does not leave us alone on the journey but stays at our side and shows us the way. Indeed, it is not enough to move onwards, one must also see where one is going! “Progress” does not suffice, if there are no criteria as reference points. On the contrary, if one loses the way one risks coming to a precipice, or at any rate more rapidly distancing oneself from the goal. God created us free but he did not leave us alone: he made himself the “way” and came to walk together with us so that in our freedom we should also have the criterion we need to discern the right way and to take it.

At this point we cannot forget the beginning of the “Decalogue”, the Ten Commandments, where it is written: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20: 2-3). Here we find the meaning of the third constitutive element of Corpus Christi: kneeling in adoration before the Lord. Adoring the God of Jesus Christ, who out of love made himself bread broken, is the most effective and radical remedy against the idolatry of the past and of the present. Kneeling before the Eucharist is a profession of freedom: those who bow to Jesus cannot and must not prostrate themselves before any earthly authority, however powerful. We Christians kneel only before God or before the Most Blessed Sacrament because we know and believe that the one true God is present in it, the God who created the world and so loved it that he gave his Only Begotten Son (cf. Jn 3: 16). We prostrate ourselves before a God who first bent over man like the Good Samaritan to assist him and restore his life, and who knelt before us to wash our dirty feet. Adoring the Body of Christ, means believing that there, in that piece of Bread, Christ is really there, and gives true sense to life, to the immense universe as to the smallest creature, to the whole of human history as to the most brief existence. Adoration is prayer that prolongs the celebration and Eucharistic communion and in which the soul continues to be nourished: it is nourished with love, truth, peace; it is nourished with hope, because the One before whom we prostrate ourselves does not judge us, does not crush us but liberates and transforms us.

You can read the entire homily by following this link:

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20080522_corpus-domini_en.html

He really offers solid catechesis. You can never go wrong using Pope Benedict as a reference.