(This is a little bit I wrote as a comment to a post of my dear blogfriend JessicaHof, “Why go to Church?” The discussion there is worth reading, but I also thought my response here might make a rare, short, succinct post for The Lonely Pilgrim.) The deeper Catholic reason why Catholics must go to …
Tag Archives: Eucharist
He welcomes me home by name
There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, …
Eat my flesh and drink my blood: A crucial Gospel passage, the Catholic Eucharist, and bad Protestant commentary
Often when it comes to the Scripture readings at Mass — especially in early morning Masses — I must confess, my eyes sometimes tend to glaze over a little and I don’t absorb them as well as I should. This is why it’s important for me to have read them beforehand, something I often don’t …
St. Justin Martyr on the Eucharist
Y’all love Justin, don’t you? Here is the continuation of the quote from yesterday, from St. Justin Martyr (100–165), describing the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in his First Apology, about A.D. 150 (Chapter 66): And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man …
St. Justin Martyr on Christian Liturgy
Between work and school, I have a lot on my plate right now, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to delay another serious post for a few days at least. I am kicking around some ideas, and may tinker on them some — but for today I’ll leave you with a worthy patristic quotation. …
The Body and Blood of Christ
Today at Mass we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. According to the Roman Missal, the actual date of the feast worldwide was last Thursday, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday; but in countries in which Corpus Christi is not a Holy Day of Obligation, …
Emotion and the Leap of Faith
I wondered if receiving the Real Presence would feel any different than any other time I’d taken Communion in my life. I wondered if the Sacrament of Confirmation would evince any inward or outward change in me — if I would feel that, too. Through the years of confusion I experienced as a Pentecostal, I …
Birth of a Catholic
Tonight, I go to bed a Catholic, having been sealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, welcomed into the arms of the Mother Church, and communing in the true Body and Blood of my Lord. I am entirely overwhelmed.
The Passion of the Lord
The liturgy of the past two days has been intense, emotional, overwhelming — more moving than any Christian service I’ve ever been a part of. I have been in some truly ecstatic, sensational services in my day — experiences routinely described by the people around me as “powerful” and “awesome” — but even then, it …
Nearing the Altar
Tomorrow begins the Triduum, the three days leading up to Easter: Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. And then, the Easter Vigil — at which I will be initiated into the Church through Confirmation and receive my first Holy Communion. It seems surreal that this moment has come. All of the …