The Eucharistic prayer is the most important and least understood prayer in the Catholic Mass. Most Catholics see it as the priest’s prayer that is centred on the consecration of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Many priests use Eucharistic Prayer II, the shortest of the 13 versions of the Read more
To understand the Eucharist, we must remember that Jesus and his first disciples were all Jews. We might even say the first Christians were Jewish heretics because, unlike their fellow Jews, they believed Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. After Pentecost, the Jewish Christians continued to go to the temple to pray. If they were Read more
The Catholic Church throughout New Zealand made serious mistakes in its approach to Māori, and using te reo during Eucharist helps us become more inclusive even in our daily lives. The comments about parish sacramental celebrations come from Palmerston North’s Bishop emeritus, Peter Cullinane, in an article published in Tui Motu. Citing examples of the Read more
The café is a place where I not only find a drink and a croissant but also the convenience of somewhere to write. In so many ways, it has replaced the pub as a meeting place, a stop-off point for anyone and everyone to pause a while over a hot coffee, to read or have Read more
The latest problem to come out of Cuba’s economic crisis is a wheat flour shortage. Besides all the usual wheat flour products the population can no longer access, the shortage means Communion hosts aren’t being made any more. “We inform all the dioceses that there are no longer hosts for sale,” the St. Teresa Discalced Read more
You will know that we are Christians by our love, but you will know that we are Catholics by our fights. Sadly, one of the things Catholics fight over is the Eucharist. In his June 29 apostolic letter to the Catholic people, Pope Francis decries this division while describing the Eucharist as the sacrament of Read more
No priests, no Eucharist, no Mass – the situation for parishes in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese looks critical. Thirty-four priests in the diocese have died since February 2020. The youngest was just 52. New proposals on restructuring parishes in the archdiocese will buy the Church some time. Not much though – between five and ten years Read more
Slowly, imperceptibly, we are leaving the Covid days behind us and a new reality is being born. Weeks and months drifted by without the Eucharist and now we are waking up to a new dawn. Much has changed. The familiar pattern of Eucharistic ministers waiting to offer each of us the cup at time of Read more
As I write this the war news gets grimmer by the day. We have gone in the space of a few weeks from ‘it could not happen’ to ‘not in 2022!’ to ‘is there no respect for life – much less for self-determination – in Putin’s vision?’ Meanwhile, many of us are discovering just how Read more
“Only one-third of American Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ,” the US-based Pew Research Center noted last August. “You see, even Catholics agree with us!” said the Protestants in a sigh of relief. But conservative Catholics were greatly alarmed. “Sixty-nine per cent of Americans who consider themselves Catholics do Read more