The Blessed Sacrament explained - California Catholic Daily (2024)

The following comes from an April 13OC Catholic article by Larry Urish:

For many of us, Holy Communion – the Holy Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper, the most central of the seven sacraments – is a deeply personal experience. Offered at every Mass, it marks the moment when we receive Jesus into our hearts and it involves intense, personal and private prayer. When we receive Holy Communion, we’re intimately united with Christ; He literally becomes a part of us.

How, then, is something so intensely personal also so closely related to sharing, fellowship and community? And how is community essential to something so personal?

Holy Communion, says Father Christopher Smith, rector and Episcopal Vicar of Christ Cathedral, “is really an act of being in communion with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. … So when you stop to think about it, there is Holy Communion, the sacrament, and holy communion, which occurs whenever we gather together in the name of Jesus.”

When we are part of the body of Christ, explainsdirector of parish faith formation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange Katie Dawson, it puts us into communion with each other in a unique way. “That should be expressed by loving a relationship within each community. So we should be coming together into communion.”

A faith community differs from a secular group in a number of important ways. With secular associations, notes Father Smith, the group dynamics are the same: relationships are built, roles are established, leaders come to the fore and so on.

“When we gather in the name of Christ, the fellowship in His name actually makes Jesus in our presence,” he says. That is to say, Christ is present where two or more are gathered in His name. The Eucharist is made by Christ through the priest and the consecration whether or not the community is present, although it’s always better to have the community present.

Dawson points out that relationships in the context of communion are given to us, rather than chosen. “So in a secular setting we gravitate to those with common backgrounds, interests and circ*mstances. We tend to hang out with people who are substantially like ourselves.

“But in the body of Christ,” she adds, “We hang out with all kinds of people. We are intended to care for people who are very different. The average parish community has a lot of economic, ethnic and age diversity in it.”

Regardless of the faith group you choose, Dawson reminds us, “We have a tendency to skip the source of our community [Jesus] and jump ahead to community-building itself. However, when we are truly incorporated in the source, a strong community is a natural result.”

1. Joe April 19, 2016 at 3:18 am - Reply

   Another blah blah blah article about of all things “US”. Receiving our “Lord” on the hand, lack of reverence, no paten being used by and Alter Boy ect ect ect. Nothing is mentioned about the “Holy Sacrifice” it’s all about us and of course “community”. Yes we should be coming into communion to receive Communion, that being our “Lord” but not under heretical ways. Those who want to receive need to change there ways not the other way around as things have been for the past 50 years.

2. Jesusita April 19, 2016 at 4:53 am - Reply

   This article could have been written by a Lutheran or an Episcopalian, because it surely does not reflect traditional Catholic doctrine. The Mass is an unbloody sacrifice, a reenactment of Calvary. The Council of Trent says that anyone who says it is a memorial of the Last Supper, is anathema. Even though is it permissible, showing someone receive the Sacred Body of Christ in their hand is not reverent, and it downplays the sacredness of Holy Communion, and the fact that Christ is present in the sacred Host. Ave Maria Purrissima !

3. FromThePew April 19, 2016 at 2:00 pm - Reply

   Not exactly the Catholic Communion of Saints doctrine is it? When we (family) go to Holy Mass we go for Jesus!. Community is not expected (nor appropriate) until after Holy Mass. What can be more important then focusing on the reception of our Lord? Why must everything be a focus on mere ‘man’ vs the Divine? If you cannot turn your mind fully to our Lord at the beautiful Holy Mass WHEN then? STOP with the distractions already. PRAY that the Holy Church go back to the lovely tradition of Communion rails, kneeling and reception on the tongue. That would help focus Mass on God vs little sinful us. A small change but oh so worthy of consideration in the Novos Ordo to help with lack of appropriate reverence that is so common. I’ll…

4. Herman April 19, 2016 at 5:09 pm - Reply

   Mass is supposed to be where you go to honor God. It is a duty from the 3rd Commandment- it is the Lord’s Day, not the community day. We attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to honor God and not each other. If I want to socialize, I can go to a café, or a co*cktail lounge, or go on a picnic. I do not attend Mass to get touchy feely emotions or to see my pals. I am at Mass to worship and adore God, and take advantage of the unbloody sacrifice which takes place on the altar, and not on a table.

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5. Michael McDermott April 19, 2016 at 7:29 pm - Reply

   “I Confess to Almighty God, and to You My Brothers & Sisters…”

   Yes – We are In The Presence of The Lord, but We are also “His Flock”, as was pointed out on Good Shepard Sunday.

   The Flock is “The Many” for whom So Much Is Given, and Our Lord also Commanded us to Love One Another – which is also an important part of the reality of the Mass and the Parish / Diocese Community at all other times.

   We are as Children in the House of the Father, and it is appropriate that We Honor the Father by Observing His Golden Rule, particularly with others at Mass.

   • Catherine April 19, 2016 at 10:56 pm - Reply

     ‘At the Name of Jesus every knee should bend’- By Geoffrey K. Mondello
     for the Boston Catholic Journal –

     And for every subsequent generation … but ours. We are, after all, too wise … too sophisticated. We are not blind beggars and we are not simple fishermen. We are not children. Indeed. Each of them entered the Kingdom of Heaven.

     So tell me … since you are neither blind, nor simple fishermen, nor children, how do you propose to enter into the Kingdom of God? They fell to their knees before God, and you … you will do what?

     continued…

     See Also

     Let Us Love the Most Blessed Sacrament | EWTN

   • Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:01 pm - Reply

     continued..

     Is your pride so overweening that you will bring your full height to the face of God? Will you stride proudly through the Gates of Heaven? You are a fool! The arrogant have ever been an affront to God. Mary herself tells us that, “He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.”

     Are you greater than Mary, Mother of God? Greater than Saint Peter?

     Will you make yourself to be even greater than Christ Himself Who, “fell upon his face, praying” to His Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane?

     continued….

   • Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:05 pm - Reply

     continued…

     And still, when next you pass Him by — Jesus Christ really and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar — and every single day thereafter, you will not so much as acknowledge Him with the bend of your knee … nor His Sacred Name with a nod of your head?

     continued…….

   • Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:07 pm - Reply

     continued…

     Instead of repenting of this arrogance, and learning from Christ Who tells us that He Himself is humble — you celebrate! … most often yourselves — proclaiming in song, in smug assurance, that you “are God’s people” — “and the light of the world” — even as you fail to recognize Him Who stands before you … Whom on Good Friday we had crucified with our sins.

     Why do you find this so difficult?

     Because to bend your knee you must first bend your will!

     https://www.boston-catholic-journal.com/at-the-name-of-Jesus-every-knee-should-bend.htm

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6. Linda Maria April 19, 2016 at 9:13 pm - Reply

   I really prefer the Tridentine Mass, and the Baltimore Catechism! Holy Communion, as well as all of our seven Sacraments, is meant for our sanctification, so as to prepare us all for Heaven! Protestants really do not have Sacraments, in the way that we do, with sanctifying grace, from the Living Christ, in Heaven! They mostly rely on the Bible. It is true, that “where two or three are gathered…” However, Holy Communion is best understood, I think, in the traditional manner, as taught in the old Baltimore Catechism, and with the old Tridentine Latin Mass.

   • Linda Maria April 19, 2016 at 10:08 pm - Reply

     Our Lord suffered and died painfully, to give us the great gift of Salvation– the beautiful, sublime gift of Eternal Life, with Him, in Heaven! When Christ comes down from Heaven, to our holy altars at Mass– all the world should stop, kneel in profound silence, and humbly, lovingly adore our Savior, truly present, in the Blessed Sacrament!

7. Linda Maria April 19, 2016 at 10:50 pm - Reply

   If we cultivate a devout, spiritual life, as good, practicing Catholics, remaining very close to Christ, and growing daily in close union with Him, allowing Him to direct our thoughts, hearts and actions, more and more purely– then, we will become more Christ-like, in our interpersonal relations– living in Him, and for Him, and less for our sad human weaknesses! When we greet others socially, either inside or outside of church– it is not so much for ourselves (although God knows, we have our human needs!) — it is for Christ! We should try to see Christ in others, and let the Christ in us to move and to interact, with the Christ in them! All should someday, be just Christ! “All for Him,’ as the Saints say!

8. Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:15 pm - Reply

   “I have a burning thirst to be honored by men in the Blessed Sacrament, and I find hardly anyone who strives, according to My desire, to allay this thirst by making Me some return of love.” – Words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

   “Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee!” – St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

9. Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:20 pm - Reply

   “Let weak and frail man come here suppliantly to adore the Sacrament of Christ, not to discuss high things, or wish to penetrate difficulties, but to bow down to secret things in humble veneration, and to abandon God’s mysteries to God, for Truth deceives no man—Almighty God can do all things. Amen.” – St. Paul of the Cross

   “O God-Man present in this sacrament for me — what a comfort, what a privilege to know I kneel before God! And to think that this God loves me!… Mary, my mother, help me to love him in return,” – St. Alphonsus Liguori

10. Catherine April 19, 2016 at 11:23 pm - Reply

    – Words of St. Francis of Assisi in a letter to the priest friars on the Holy Eucharist

    “I beg you to show the greatest possible reverence and honor for the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things, whether on earth or in heaven, have been brought to peace and reconciled with Almighty God,”

    St. Francis of Assisi led his brothers in prostrating themselves and in proclaiming before every Church where Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament dwelt: “We adore Thee most holy Lord Jesus Christ, here in all Thy Churches, which are in the whole world, because by Thy holy cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.”

11. Janek April 20, 2016 at 7:45 am - Reply

    We don’t “gather” for Hoy Mass we attend Holy Mass to receive Our Lord on the tongue and kneeling not in the hand standing and from lay people. Once again this talk of family and hugging and kissing is still the thinking of the 1970’s “renew” silliness and very Protestant. Time to grow up and start acting like adults by attending the TLM and start focusing on Jesus Christ at the altar with the priest offering the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass because it is not about us it is all about Our Lord,

12. Linda Maria April 20, 2016 at 4:26 pm - Reply

    Protestants are not blessed with the Sacraments, and do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion! They are mainly pragmatic in their faith, lacking a mystical, Sacramental connection to the heavenly, or spiritual realms, where Christ and all the holy Angels and Saints live. That is why, being pragmatic, not mystical — they focus more on human relationships, and the human world, in their religious community, at church, on Sundays. They pray to God very intimately, the indwelling Christ– but do not have as direct a pathway to God, and to sanctification, as we do— lacking the Sacraments, and related Catholic teachings and devotions.

    • C&H April 23, 2016 at 10:24 am - Reply

      Linda Maria…I understand that some protestants believe that Christ is truly present in the consecrated bread and wine only when the congregation is present. Once the congregation disburses, it reverts to it’s unconsecrated state. One of the reasons, of course, we reserve hosts is that those homebound may receive it. Having had communion brought to me in the hospital, I think our way is better.

      • Canisius April 23, 2016 at 12:26 pm - Reply

        Of course our way it better because it is the True and only way…

      • Bob One April 23, 2016 at 1:26 pm - Reply

        Linda Maria, some denominations do in fact believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine, but its the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation. That was part of the reason for the Reformation 500 years ago. In the Lutheran tradition, for example, the Pastor visiting the sick, will consecrate the bread and wine in front of you and then give you communion. When he visits the next sick parishioner he will again consecrate. They do, however, believe in the True Presence. Their words of consecration are the same as ours.

      • Linda Maria April 27, 2016 at 6:25 pm - Reply

        C&H– Our Blessed Sacrament is an OBJECTIVE REALITY– the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ! NOT a SUBJECTIVE IDEA— as most Protestants believe! Catholic Sacramental theology was discarded by Protestants, after the Reformation. To validly consecrate the bread and wine at Mass, the priest must be validly-ordained, by a validly-ordained bishop, in the line of Apostolic Succession, of the Catholic Church.

13. Doug April 26, 2016 at 11:35 pm - Reply

    Bob One, Is that really true? Have you really researched what you said? “Their words of consecration are the same as ours”

    Well the old novus ordo words of consecration do apparently match that of the Lutheran words of consecration as I have seen for myself. That doesn’t mean the Lutherans have grown closer to the V2 Church, No, it only means the watering down of the faith in the V2 Church has allowed itself to become closer to the Lutherans. It is the V2 Church evolving more and more into Protestantism rather than the protestant churches evolving more and more into V2 Church. I dare you to check out these ecumenism truths!

14. Linda Maria April 27, 2016 at 12:53 am - Reply

    Bob One– Luther believed that the bread and wine still remained, after the Consecration, along with the Real Presence of Christ! But Catholics believe that the bread and wine no longer remain, after the Consecration– it is truly ONLY CHRIST, under the APPEARANCE of bread and wine! Luther didn’t care much for the Sacraments. Although he was validly ordained, I don’t think any of his successors were, and did not receive priestly graces from the line of Apostolic
    Succession. On the other hand, Rome has always viewed the Anglican priesthood/ministry as perhaps having received valid graces, from the line of Apostolic Succession, dating back to Christ and St. Peter.