The Liturgy of the Sacrament

This part of the Eucharist, which centres on the bread and wine, is what Jesus himself gave us on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper.  It was then that Jesus gave to his Crucifixion its meaning and offered himself beforehand to God for our salvation.  He

“…took bread and gave you thanks;
he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you;
do this in remembrance of me”.

“In the same way, after supper
he took the cup and gave you thanks;
he gave it to them, saying:
Drink this, all of you;
this is my blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. 
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me”. (1)

Offertory: we offer to God ourselves as symbolised by the bread and wine, manufactured foods which represent our life and work, what we are and what we do.

Consecration: at the Consecration, when the priest repeats Our Lord’s words at the Last Supper, we offer Our Lord himself to God and then Our Lord takes the forms of bread and wine on the altar and makes them one with himself in his Ascended Body as he promised.  And as we offer him to God as our Crucified Saviour, so he brings us to his Father and presents us with himself as the people he was born and died to save.

Breaking of the Bread: the priest breaks the consecrated Bread (the Host) as Jesus did at the Last Supper.

Communion: Jesus gives us himself in his Risen and Glorified Body under the forms of Bread and Wine so that, by becoming part of him, we may become like him. Then we possess him in our inmost being and he possesses us.

Dismissal and blessing

After the Eucharist we are meant to go back to our daily lives to live as true children of our Heavenly Father – loving, trusting, obeying and imitating him – and as faithful friends of his Son Jesus Christ.