NOTE: Christ in Our Neighborhood is a parish-based program consisting of small groups that gather in the home weekly to discuss and pray through the upcoming Sunday Mass readings. Find out more at Christ in Our Neighborhood – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix (dphx.org)
This coming Sunday, we celebrate the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The question the Christ in Our Neighborhood reflection asks us is: Is the Eucharist the source and summit of your faith?
Ever wonder where those words, “source and summit” come from? They’re in paragraph 1324 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church which explains that all the sacraments and ecclesial and apostolic works are tightly bound up with the Eucharist. At the consecration, the priest, acting in persona Christi, is making present the sacrificial death of Christ on Calvary.
“The Eucharist is the wellspring of all sacramental graces. All of them, which form the bedrock of our lives in Christ, have their origin in His Sacrifice. While every sacrament dispenses grace, the Eucharist is also the One Who dispenses graces,” writes Nick Jones at Clarifying Catholicism.
In my own life, the Eucharist has been a source of joy since I was a young child. I remember a playmate at our Catholic school inviting me to enter the church one cold and frosty winter morning. We crept in the back to get out of the 40-degree weather but also, at my friend’s behest, to say our morning prayers. (She was evangelizing me — in my 6-year-old mind, I didn’t know we were supposed to say morning prayers.)
There was a Mass going on at that hour and in my mind’s eye, I can see the flickering candles and heads bowed in prayer. But more than that, there was a palpable Presence there. That Presence, I came to understand later, was Jesus in the Eucharist. His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity are present in every tabernacle in the world.
Beginning in college, attending daily Mass became a focal point of my prayer life and it still is today, years later. Receiving Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity brings grace, peace, healing, courage and many other gifts.
To sign up for our weekly Christ in Our Neighborhood newsletter that has everything you need for your next meeting, visit: https://phoenixdiocese.flocknote.com/CION
