FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

 

What is Holy Eucharist?

 

Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament in which Jesus Christ gives his Body and Blood—himself— for us, so that we too might give ourselves to him in love and be united with him in Holy Communion. In this way we are joined with the one Body of Christ, the Church.

 

After Baptism and Confirmation, the Eucharist is the third sacrament of initiation of the Catholic Church. The Eucharist is the mysterious center of all these sacraments, because the historic sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is made present during the words of consecration in a hidden, unbloody manner.  When we eat the broken Bread, we unite ourselves with the love of Jesus, who gave his body for us on the wood of the Cross; when we drink from the chalice, we unite ourselves with him who even poured out his blood out of love for us. We did not invent this ritual.

 

When did Christ institute the Eucharist?

 

Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist on the evening before his death, “on the night when he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23), when he gathered the Apostles around him in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and celebrated the Last Supper with them.

 

How did Christ institute the Eucharist?

 

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the chalice, after supper, saying, ‘This chalice is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’ ” (1 Cor 11:23-25).