Why do we receive the Eucharist on Good Friday?

[Happy2bcatholic]

My 5 yr old wants to know. He knows that it is the day that Jesus died and that there is no Mass but still he wants to know, then WHY do we still receive him in the Eucharist if that is the day that he died. I wasn’t sure how to respond to his question other than the Eucharist is the central part of our faith and we need to be spiritually fed. your responses? Thank you!

 

[PLAT]

Well, no bread or wine is to be consecrated on Good Friday for sure.
The holy communion is done though just like every other day in a church, so that people can recieve the body and blood of Christ.

 

[James_Miller]

The Mass of the Pre-Sanctified and Communion of the faithful is fairly recent in the Latin Catholic Church. There is no Communion in the Malankara Catholic Church on Good Friday.

 

[puzzleannie]

The sharing in the previously consecrated Eucharist is the sign of our belief that the sacrament on Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross are one and the same saving event.

 

[Bookcat]

On Good Friday one “receives the Eucharist, consuming the sacred species reserved from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on the previous day.”

–Pope Benedict XVI

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070404_en.html

 

[ProVobis]

My 5 yr old wants to know. He knows that it is the day that Jesus died and that there is no Mass but still he wants to know, then WHY do we still receive him in the Eucharist if that is the day that he died. I wasn’t sure how to respond to his question other than the Eucharist is the central part of our faith and we need to be spiritually fed. your responses? Thank you!

Your 5yr old does have a point. It seems to send out confusing signals when Mass is not allowed to be said and the tabernacle is required to be devoid of the Blessed Sacrament, only to bring the consecrated hosts stored away from the tabernacle back to the main receiving area and become the focus of the Good Friday service.

 

[Love_Divine]

My 5 yr old wants to know. He knows that it is the day that Jesus died and that there is no Mass but still he wants to know, then WHY do we still receive him in the Eucharist if that is the day that he died. I wasn’t sure how to respond to his question other than the Eucharist is the central part of our faith and we need to be spiritually fed. your responses? Thank you!

Correction:
The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is central to our faith, which is why there is no Mass on Good Friday. It reminds the Church of the deep sorrow She feels dhuring the anniversary of the Sacrifice of Calvary… In the Old Rite, the priest is dressed in black vestments to mark that this is a time of deep sorrow and mourning. Though, with,the way many congregants behave, one would never know this.

Instead we receive the Eucharist in the “Mass of the Presanctified.”

 

[malphono]

The Mass of the Pre-Sanctified and Communion of the faithful is fairly recent in the Latin Catholic Church.

I wouldn’t exactly say that the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday in the Latin Churh is of “recent” origin, since it’s been around for at least 500 years, and perhaps far longer. Plus, there is at least one exception: in the Ambrosian Rite, Good Friday is strictly aliturgical (as are all Fridays in Lent); Mass is not offered, nor is there even a communion service on such days.

There is no Communion in the Malankara Catholic Church on Good Friday.

Quite so. By Tradition, Good Friday is strictly aliturgical in all of the East and Orient. Where the practice of “Presanctified” and communion on Good Friday exists (and it does in several Churches), it is purely a latinization.

 

[Happy2bcatholic]

thank you all for your responses, but WHY do we receive the Eucharist on Good Friday, the day of our Lord’s death. I know that is the way it is done. But WHY is it done. Thank you!

 

[ConstantineTG]

I know it wasn’t done in the past. I don’t know why its done today. In the Byzantine Rite, we have no Communion on Good Friday.

 

[Bookcat]

thank you all for your responses, but WHY do we receive the Eucharist on Good Friday, the day of our Lord’s death. I know that is the way it is done. But WHY is it done. Thank you!

One one sense one can say that …for the same reasons one receives on other days…

vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P42.HTM

with the added case that one is celebrating especially the day that he laid down his life for us…one wishes to receive him…to participate in a particular way in that sacrifice …

receiving the Eucharist consecrated at the Mass of the Lords Supper the night before…