Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of the Holy Communion

The Eucharist

The Church receives the Eucharist as a gift from the Lord. St Paul

wrote: “I have 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:

`This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying: `This cup is the

new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in

remembrance of me.’ (I Cor. 11:23–25; cf. Matt. 26:26–29; Mark

14:22–25; Luke 22:14–20).

The meals which Jesus is recorded as sharing during his earthly

ministry proclaimed and enacted the nearness of God’s Kingdom,

of which the feeding of the multitudes is a sign.

 In his last meal, Jesus connected his table fellowship with his

disciples to his coming suffering.

 After his resurrection, the Lord made his presence known to

his disciples in the breaking of bread.

 Thus the eucharist continues these meals of Jesus during his

earthly life and after his resurrection, always as a sign of

the coming Kingdom.

 At the Eucharist the Church, through the priest, asks God

the Father to send the Holy Spirit, to make Jesus present

in and through the signs of bread and wine.

 ‘Eucharist’ means ‘thanksgiving’: We thank God for all the

blessings of creation and salvation through the death and

resurrection of Jesus.

Thus Christ commanded his disciples to remember and

encounter him in this sacramental meal until his return in glory.

By means of visible signs (eating bread and drinking wine), God

communicates to us the glorified body and blood of the risen

Jesus Christ. By sharing together in the one bread and one cup of

the Lord, we become one body in Christ.

The Church’s sacramental meal has various names in different

traditions: the Lord’s Supper, the Breaking of Bread, the Holy

Communion, the Divine Liturgy, and the Mass.

Its celebration is the central act of Christian worship: by the

power of the Holy Spirit, we proclaim Christ’s death,

celebrate his resurrection, and welcome him in the

sacramental signs he gives us, until he comes again in glory.