Friday, June 12, 2009

Daily - 6/12/09

Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, 3 his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

13 He sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. 4 Follow him.

14 Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'

15 Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there."

16 The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

22 While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."

23 Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

24 He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.

25 Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

26 Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
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I've skipped forward to Sunday's reading, which is Mark's account of the institution of the Eucharist.

This is our identity as Catholics. The Catechism calls the Eucharist the "source and summit" of our faith. Indeed, all paths lead here for us. We believe that the Eucharist is the physical body and blood of Christ. We have the opportunity to receive this every day, and we have the opportunity to sit directly before Jesus in Adoration any time we want, 24 hours per day.

I'll leave the rest to someone smarter than me.
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ENCYCLICAL LETTERECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA
OF HIS HOLINESSPOPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS, MEN AND WOMEN IN THE CONSECRATED LIFE, AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE EUCHARIST IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH

April 17, 2003

1. The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.

The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life”.1 “For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men”.2 Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.

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