Today we celebrate the feast of Holy Thursday, the day that the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist when, at the Passover Supper with His disciples, He "took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes." At every liturgy the priest consecrates the bread and the wine which, in the consecration, the bread and the wine becomes the body and blood, soul and divinity of the Lord. Through the priest, the Lord then says to us: Take and eat and take and drink: "This is my body that is for you...[and] this cup is the new covenant in my blood," poured out for you. Each participant at this holy banquet then receives the Holy Eucharist, which is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. What a gift! What a meal! What awesome nourishment. And what a gift to be part of this holy banquet until Jesus comes again and in the act of celebration proclaiming, in faith, the death and resurrection of the Lord!
I thank my parents and religious education teachers and the priests of my childhood for passing on this faith to me. And I thank God for giving me this gift of faith through them! May my faith deepen day by day until my death in the Lord Jesus and my entrance into eternal life!
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