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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