the sacrament of eucharist????

Question

i need some simple/basic info or facts about the sacrament of eucharist. i havee lookedon the internet but it is really complicated! Any idea?

Answer 1

Eucharist is the oldest form of Christian prayer. It was founded by Jesus at the First Supper which was renamed the Last Supper by Protestants to protest the idea of God being present in communion.

The word sacrament is a translation of the Greek word we call mystery. So the mystery of the Eucharist is the mystery of thanksgiving to God in which He presents himself in the meal for us to become one with God.

The earliest writers who were ordained by the apostles will confirm that the Catholic understanding is the correct understanding and that the idea that God is absent is a recent innovation. John's Gospel is pretty specific that it is the literal flesh and blood of Jesus and people reject that as rediculous and depart. Jesus says that only those who eat his flesh and drink his blood can have salvation.

It is the daily physical representation of Emmanuel or God-Is-With-Us.

Answer 2

It's not that complicated...the basic sacrament is based on the bread and wine served by jesus in the bible story of the last supper. The two items were supposed to represent the body and blood of jesus, and partaking of them was meant to remind a person about him giving his body and shedding his blood as a sacrifice for sins.

Quite some time later (many theologians associate the doctrine first with St. Cyril of Jerusalem), the church adopted the doctrine of "transmutation" (some call it "transubstantiation") -- which says that when blessed by the priest during mass, the bread (wafer) and wine no longer merely *represent* the body and blood of jesus, but actually BECOME the body and blood of jesus -- so that partakers are literally eating and drinking the flesh and blood of jesus.

That's the catholic definition. Personally, I think it's a bunch of hooey...the wine is just wine, the wafer just a wafer -- they don't *act* any differently after being blessed, so how can they *be* something they're not? :)

Answer 3

I am a Protestant Christian, but from what i've heard, the Roman Catholics believe that the Eucharist is when they take communion with the bread and the wine and they believe that the bread and the wine actually turns into the actual body and blood of Christ. I don't know the other details about it, but you can probably find helpful information at www.equip.org. Protestants, such as myself, believe that the bread and wine are only symbolic of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross 2,000yrs ago.

Answer 4

I have never seen so many people who are not Catholic talking about a purely Catholic Sacrament as if they were experts. Suffice it to say that baptism is the betrothal and the Holy Eucharist is the consummation where we as his bride (The Church) consume the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our spouse Jesus. We become one with him so we have become the Body of Christ. In this world when we eat something that food becomes part of us but, in the Holy Eucharist we become part of him. The biggest difference between Protestants and Catholics with this Sacrament is that Protestants believe that yes, Jesus is present but, so is bread and grape juice or wine but Catholics believe that the wine is truly blood after the consecration and the bread is truly flesh after the consecration.

Consider for a moment the piece of Scripture where Jesus says "And on that day many will come to me and say Lord didn't we do this in your name and didn't we do that in your name, and I will say away from me you evil doers for I do not KNOW you". Now we know that Jesus knows everyone but, the knowing he is talking about is the knowledge that a husband has with his wife. It is very deep and a mystery for most.

Answer 5

The Catholic Church looks at communion as "transubstantiation" which means that they believe it is turned into the literal body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. The Eucharist would be the bread, or the Body, after it is blessed by the priest. Excess hosts not consumed are placed in a tabernacle, never thrown away.

Answer 6

Eucharist - Communion in the Catholic Church (and some other denominations). They believe that the wine turns to his blood, and the bread turns to his flesh when they take communion. Sacraments - ceremonies. It is kind of hard to explain. Baptism, the Eucharist are both sacraments of the Catholic faith. Purgatory - Catholics believe that if you die without confessing and repenting of your sin, you go to Purgatory for a certain time to pay for that sin. It is kind of... in between heaven and hell.

Answer 7

The sacrament of Eucharist is celebrated at every Catholic (and other denominations I'm sure) mass. It's accepting the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ after it is blessed by the priest and then consuming it.

Answer 8

Roman Catholics share with Protestants a belief in the real presence of Christ's true body and blood in the elements of the Sacrament. However, disagreements have existed historically on whether or how the mystery of Christ's presence can be explained. Catholics explain the Real Presence through their doctrine of transubstantiation.

Protestants reject such an attempt to explain the Real Presence and insist that we must adhere to the simple words of Christ and be content to believe them as a divine mystery beyond human comprehension or explanation. In addition, longstanding differences exist regarding the Catholic position on the Eucharist as a sacrifice. Protestants have rejected any understanding of the Lord's Supper as a sacrificial act on our part, holding that it is purely God's gift through which He acts to impart His forgiveness and strength to communicants. With respect to Baptists, usually Baptists understanding the Lord's Supper as a symbolic act, including the elements of bread and wine as symbolizing Christ's presence--in contrast to the Lutheran position that Christ's true body and blood are present in, with, and under the external elements of bread and wine.

Answer 9

What kind of info do you want?

Eucharist derives from a Greek word meaning 'thanksgiving'. At the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks (thanksgiving), gave to his disciples and said, "Take. Eat. This is my body which will be given up for you". He was giving his disciples his flesh to eat as he told them he would in the second part of John chapter 6. (In the first part of John chapter 6, Jesus shows that he can feed the multitudes with very little bread - ie: his body.) He told them to do as he had whenever they meet.

After the resurrection, some of the disciples were walking on the road when they met a stranger. The stranger explained to them all of the scriptures that foretold of Jesus. Then he joined them for supper. When he offered thanks and broke the bread, the disciples eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Then he vanished. The Church has offered the Eucharist at every time and place ever since.

The Eucharist is truly the body of Christ. It is a re-presentation of the sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. Jesus perpetuated his sacrifice down through the ages so that people of all times and nations could reap the benefits of his sacrifice. In the Old Testament, whenever a sacrifice was offered, part of it was eaten and part was burnt as an offering to God. The Passover lamb was eaten with unleavened bread as a prototype of our Pascal Lamb, whom we receive in the form of unleavened bread.

I hope this answers some of your questions. If you want more info, please email me. I could go on all day about the Eucharist.

WellTraveledProg is way off on his assumptions. The fact is that the very first bishops ordained by the apostles also taught that the Eucharist was the body of Christ. We read St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch...

Be careful, then, to observe a single Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and one cup of his blood that makes us one, and one altar, just as there is one bishop along with the presbytery and the deacons, my fellow slaves. In that way whatever you do is in line with God's will (Letter to the Philadelphians [A.D. 110]).

Pay close attention to those who have wrong notions about the grace of Jesus Christ, which has come to us, and note how at variance they are with God's mind. They care nothing about love: they have no concern for widows or orphans, for the oppressed, for those in prison or released, for the hungry or the thirsty. They hold aloof from the Eucharist and from services of prayer, because they refuse to admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which, in his goodness, the Father raised [from the dead] (Letter to the Smyrnaens 6:2-7:1 [A.D. 110]).

There is MUCH more of this on my website. Please check it out. Just click on 'Early Fathers' at the top and find 'Eucharist' - or any other subject - on the left.

Answer 10

the Eucharist is the true body, blood and divinity of Jesus in the form of bread and wine, it is Him, He is present, truly. It is a mystery the mind cannot comprehend. Only God understands this mystery. If we knew everything, then we would be gods. Protestants don't believe this. To them its just a symbol of the last supper, they only reenact it. The Eurcharist, Christ, is not present in protestant "churches"