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Chapter 17. The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Christian Life • 219
and Blood” (CCC, no. 1350). From the earliest days of the Church, there
was also an offering of gifts for the poor and needy. This has become the
customary place and time for the parish collection.
b.
The Eucharistic Prayer
(Jesus blessed and gave thanks). This is the
heart of the Eucharistic Liturgy, which unfolds in the following manner.
•
Thanksgiving
(expressed especially in the Preface): In this prayer,
we thank God the Father, through Christ in the Spirit, for the
gifts of creation, salvation, and sanctification.
•
Acclamation
: The whole congregation joins with the angels and
saints in singing or saying the
Sanctus
(Holy, Holy).
•
Epiclesis
(Invocation): The Church implores the power of the
Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine offered by human
hands into Christ’s Body and Blood.
•
Institution Narrative and Consecration
: The priest proclaims
Jesus’ words at the Last Supper over the bread and wine. “The
power of the words and the action of Christ, and the power of
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
fulfillment 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 the 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 pil-
grim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine
Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days,
filling them with confident hope. (Pope John Paul II,
On
the Eucharist
[
Ecclesia de Eucharistia
; EE], no. 1)
THE CHURCH AND THE EUCHARIST