The Eucharist

The Eucharist brings about our intimate union with Jesus Christ because it is a sacrament of love, with his Church because it is a sign of unity and with the very presence of the risen Christ who shares his life with us. As Jesus announced, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them’ (John 6:56).

The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which we receive at Mass, is the real physical and spiritual presence of Jesus Christ. As Catholics, we take Jesus at his word when he says ‘This is my body, which is given for you’ (Luke 22:19). Another way of putting this is that Catholics believe in the Real Presence. We believe that Jesus Christ is ‘present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity (CCC 1413).’ When we compare the man who walked the earth some two thousand years ago with the consecrated Bread and Wine, the only difference is the outward appearance, the underlying reality is Jesus Christ our Lord.

If you'd like to find out more about the Mass, you can click here.

If you'd like to find out more about First Holy Communion, you can click here.