Eucharist

The mystery of union beyond distinction is a key of the eucharistic doctrine for Cyril of Alexandria who compares it to the intra-trinitarian union and the union of Christ with his flesh. These three unions do not imply confusion nor division, but a communication of properties, thought according to different manners : substantial union for Trinity, appropriation in the case of Christ, physical participation in the eucharist. The latter permits to transform corporeality (a principle of separation between men) into a means of supreme union. It implies a double participation to God - spiritual and corporeal-, two elements we find in sacramental practices : central position of the Holy Spirit, whose presence is required to receive communion (thus the relationship between baptism and eucharist) ; realistic conversion of bread and wine, importance of the body. Facing the dilemma raised by Nestorius - does the christian eat the body or the divinity ?-, Cyril states that the flesh must belong to the Word as his own in order to preserve the power of the eucharist. 

Le mystère de l'union par delà la distinction est une des clés de la doctrine eucharistique pour Cyrille d'Alexandrie qui la compare avec l'union intra-trinitaire et celle du Christ à sa chair. Ces trois unions n'impliquent ni confusion ni division, mais une communication des propriétés, selon des modes différents cependant : union substantielle pour la Trinité, appropriation dans le cas du Christ, participation physique dans l'eucharistie. Cette dernière permet de transformer la corporéité, facteur de séparation entre les hommes, en moyen d'union suprême. Elle suppose une double participation à Dieu, spirituelle et corporelle, deux aspects qui se retrouvent dans la pratique sacramentelle : place centrale de l'Esprit Saint dont la présence est prérequise pour communier (d'où les relations entre baptême et eucharistie) ; réalisme de la transformation du pain et du vin, importance du corps. Face au dilemme posé par Nestorius - le chrétien mange-t-il le corps ou la divinité ?-, Cyrille affirme que seule l'appartenance en "propre" de la chair au Verbe préserve la puissance de l'eucharistie.

Bruno Restif, « Un évêque issu de la réforme régulière au temps de la première réforme séculière. Yves Mayheuc et les paroissiens du diocèse de Rennes : convergences et ignorances », in Augustin Pic et Georges Provost (dir.), Yves Mayheuc, 1462-1541. Rennes en Renaissance, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010, p. 203-215.

Sacra Doctrina Series, The Catholic University of America Press, 2021

From the Backcover:
Bread from Heaven offers a contemporary theological synthesis on the Eucharist that brings together classical and critical biblical exegesis, debates on the early history of the Christian liturgy, patristic doctrine, the teachings offered by the Councils of Florence, Trent and Vatican II, and the Church’s lex orandi, all within a framework provided by the Eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas.

The volume begins with Christ’s Bread of Life discourse in John 6, in light of the Old Testament theme of the manna, and the Synoptic accounts of the Last Supper. These biblical texts offer solid foundation for a theology of Eucharistic sacrifice, presence and Communion. It then continues with a historical and systematic study of the institution of the Eucharist by Christ, with special attention given to the emergence of the first Eucharistic prayers. Then follows a survey of key Christological and ecclesiological themes which undergird Eucharistic theology. The chapters on Eucharistic sacrifice and presence form the heart of the work. Here, the focus moves to key conciliar, patristic and Thomistic insights on these themes. Bread from Heaven clarifies misunderstandings of Eucharistic sacrifice and renders transubstantiation accessible to beginners.

Blankenhorn concludes with a study of the consecration, the minister of the Eucharist and the fruits of communion. The chapter on the debate over the words of institution and the epiclesis gives a fresh perspective that integrates both eastern and western tradition. The study of the Eucharistic celebrant strikes a balance between a spirituality of the priest as acting in persona Christi and of the priest as praying in persona ecclesiae. The concluding chapter centers on the Eucharist’s unitive, mystical fruits in the Church.

This textbook is ideal for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course on Eucharistic theology. It also seeks to advance the debate on several controversial historical and speculative issues in sacramental theology.

Die Studie untersucht die Bedeutung von Wein und Blut im Johannesevangelium und deren relationales Verhältnis. Sie hinterfragt dabei die bisherigen Forschungspositionen. Neuere Ergebnisse der ritual- und sozialgeschichtlichen Forschung zur frühchristlichen Mahlpraxis verändern die Perspektive auf traditionell als "Abendmahlstexte" wahrgenommene Perikopen. Zugleich sind damit aber auch zentrale Fragen der Theologie des Johannesevangeliums mit im Blick. Auch hier bietet die Studie neue Impulse. Der Text des Johannesevangeliums war in seiner Rezeption ritualprägend und eben nicht umgekehrt durch ein angenommenes Eucharistieritual vorgeprägt. Die Metaphorik des Essens und Trinkens für die Annahme von Lehre, die bisher von der "eucharistischen" Diskussion verdeckt war, erlaubt einen neuen Blick auf die ritualgeschichtliche Entwicklung und Theologie des Abendmahls.

Eucaristía, Eunsa-Instituto superior de ciencias religiosas, Pamplona 2018, 144 pp.
En estas líneas queremos profundizar lo que el concilio Vaticano II ha llamado la "cumbre y fuente" de la vida cristiana (cf. LG 11, PO 5, SC 10), el centro mismo de la Iglesia. En primer lugar, abordamos lo que la Escritura dice sobre el mayor de los sacramentos y el lugar que va ocupando en la vida de la Iglesia, para seguir después con el tratamiento más sistemático de sus principales dimensiones, esto es, la Eucaristía como memorial, como presencia y como comunión. La Eucaristía permite además que todo lo nuestro sea presentado como ofrenda agradable al Padre.

Penso di essere riuscito a dimostrare:
a) che Gv 6,51 nel suo contesto ha senso cristologico e non eucaristico;
b) che la tradizione pre-Mc utilizza Gv 6,51 per applicarlo al pane dell'ultima cena, facendo nascere le 'parole eucaristiche' sul pane, meglio definite come 'parole esplicative';
c) che i temi dell'eucaristia della Didachè 9-10 si trovano tutti in Gv 17 che è una preghiera ed è a conclusione dell'ultima cena;
d) che in Giovanni c'è l'istituzione dell'eucaristia;
e) che siamo noi che abbiamo un differente concetto di istituzione, non Giovanni che non ha l'istituzione;
f) che i pasti con il Signore sono il luogo in cui egli si rivela;
g) che sono questi ciò che sta all’origine dell’eucaristia delle chiese;
h) che le parole paoline sul calice sono mirate per dire che è la chiesa la comunità della nuova alleanza nel sangue di Cristo;
i) che è Paolo che crea il mandato, risolvendo così il caso delle divisioni a Corinto. 

In altri termini, Gesù non ha mai pronunciato quelle parole che noi chiamiamo consacratorie o il mandato. Ma ha fatto ben di più: i pasti con il Signore sono il modo primario per conoscerlo con quella conoscenza che salva. Il modo primario della comunione con lui. 

Per cui il pane del racconto dell'ultima cena prende il posto della manna a essere metafora del pane disceso dal cielo, quello vero che il Padre dà e che il Cristo darà sul Calvario. Ciò che viene dato sarà il suo «basar» per la vita del mondo.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the symposium, "Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of the Reformation-Era Divisions," held at Mundelein Seminary, IL, Oct 19-21 2017. This is an expanded version of the paper that tries to do a number of things. First, I propose that one fruitful lens through which to view the Protestant-Catholic divide concerning the Eucharist and sacrifice is this: the attenuating view of Christianity as a ritual, cultic religion. Second, I suggest that this loss in most of Protestantism is related to the rather lopsided emphasis in the medieval Latin West on the following topics: the objective character of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, the means by which that change takes place, what Christians receive in the Sacrament, and the sacrificial character of the Eucharist. I will attempt to demonstrate this thesis with just one clear example: the English Prayer Book tradition. 
The paper proceeds in the following way. First, I will say something about this lopsided emphasis by walking through Thomas’s treatise in the Summa. Second, I will describe the emergence of the English reformation theology on the Eucharist as expressed in the first two prayer books of 1549 and 1552. Third, I will describe the emergence of (what I will call with a wink) the “reform of the reform” which comes to fruition in the Scottish tradition. I will conclude with a brief consideration of Ratzigner’s contribution to the question of eucharistic sacrifice in Spirit of the Liturgy and the possible subsequent emergence of a unified Anglican approach to eucharistic sacrifice and rapprochement with the Catholic Church.

Quelques jours après le début du confinement imposé en Italie et ensuite dans beaucoup d’autres pays à cause la pandémie du COVID-19, le pape François a invité les catholiques empêchés d’aller la messe à adopter la pratique de la communion spirituelle. Alors, des milliers de sites internet à travers le monde ont publié des explications de ce qu’est la communion spirituelle. Nous allons voir, grâce à notre parcours dans l’histoire, toutes les richesses de la « communion spirituelle » pour aujourd’hui.

This paper is based study about different methods of FRP recycling and their advantages and disadvantages. This paper largely focuses on finding best possible method for recycling of Fibre Reinforced Polymer based on various factors such as technical analysis, economics of method and it's environmental impacts. Various methods are speculated on technical background to find out mechanical constraints while performing particular recycling process and then emissions and social impacts are analyzed to figure out suitability and workability of the process. This way various methods are studied and an attempt has been made to figure out detailing of every recycling method which will throw light on some unexplored regions for better understanding of recycling of FRP.

Scientists and non-scientists speak to each other from different cultures without always realizing that they understand ideas differently--including the idea of substance.  Scientists have even been told that it is wrong to ask questions, like "how" sacraments work. Beginning with clearer "packaging" of the church's explanations of scripture, Christology, and sacraments, options to bridge that gap emerge.  Using allowable explanations from church history, including and especially the Council of Trent's description of Transubstantiation, a legitimate scientific explanation of that wondrous transformation reveals itself as a complementary alternative to the explanation of St. Thomas Aquinas' double miracle description.  This helps a lot in the RCIA program.

New and complete Dutch translation of 'Till He Come. Communion Meditations and Addresses' (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1894), with an introduction on Spurgeon and the Lord's Supper.

** Description in Dutchman
Het avondmaal nam voor C.H. Spurgeon een bijzondere plaats in. Vol vreugde spreekt hij over het grote offer van de verzoening, waarvan brood en beker de tekenen zijn. Centraal staat daarbij voor hem de 'gemeenschap met Christus', de diepe relatie tussen Christus en de gelovige. Aan deze Heiland mag ieder zich gewonnen geven.

Spurgeon laat zich niet alleen zien als talentvol spreker, maar hij toont ook zijn warme, pastorale hart. Zijn eigen worsteling wordt zichtbaar, maar ook de vrede en troost die hij vindt in de dienst van de Heere. De overdenkingen zijn levendig en aansprekend door hun persoonlijke karakter en de vele herkenbare voorbeelden die Spurgeon gebruikt.

Totdat Hij komt verscheen voor het laatst in het Nederlands bij Wever in Franeker in 1981. Deze uitgave in een nieuwe toegankelijke vertaling laat Spurgeons geestelijke inzicht weer schitteren.

This publication is the original Polish text of my article which was published in the Ukrainian language in 2016 in Studia Catholica Podoliae Annus VIII (2014-2015) Numerus 8-9 Городок – Камянець-Подільський, 57-109.
This Ukrainian text is published on Academia, too.
The title:
Four cups of Passover. Why four?
The presentation of the internal logic of this extraordinary liturgy, which is Passover, was the purpose of this article. The logic of the Passover God inscribed in the literary structure, according to which a literary whole was composed of the first eighteen chapters of the Book of Exodus. He did this through the inspired authors, of whom Moses played a central role.
The Passover’s logic was simultaneously read from the Paschal Haggadah as a Jewish liturgical book, the fruit of the long process of formation in the Tradition of Israel, and finally saved as a help for the father of the family who has to guard its faithful implementation in the annual celebration. 
It was shown that the four-element structure of the Passover was built on an earlier structure of the ceremony of making a covenant that was binding on the rulers of countries in the ancient Near East around the sixteenth to twelfth century BC. It is the discovery of this relationship – the Passover rite and the ceremonial of making a covenant – that allow us to see that the logic of the ceremonial of the covenant was written in the liturgical order of Passover elements. At the same time, it was shown that the covenant referred to is not a commonly known covenant at Mount Sinai, but a slightly earlier covenant of Passover / Exodus, that is the covenant, which God made with Israel while crossing the Red Sea.
Answering the question put in the title of the article, it was shown that the four cups of Passover are associated with the four main parts of Paschal liturgy, and in turn – with four stages of the Exodus and at the same time four elements of the ceremonial of making a covenant.
During analysis of four parts of the Passover ritual, the analogies that occur between them and four parts of the rite of the Eucharist were pointed out. In addition, it was pointed out that just as the four-step Exodus from Egypt is covered by the buckle „preparation – completion”, there is also the buckle „before-seder – after-seder” in the Passover rite and in the Eucharist rite: at the beginning it is a time when the community prepares itself to enter the seriousness of the liturgy; at the end it is a time of prayer when the liturgical community accepts new spiritual gifts from God.
Finally, the biblical grounds of anticipation and its presence in the third part of the Passover and of the Eucharist are shown. In the rite of the Eucharist, a new explanation of the “memorial” as a sacrifice that Jesus makes of himself in the act of dying on Golgotha, but anticipatively present in the Cenacle in this state of sacrificial dying, is shown in the reality of the eucharistical anticipation. The sacrifice of the memorial, which ensures the return of Jesus from the Abyss, is the type of the sacrifice that was practiced in antiquity before going out to battle. Jesus does not make this Sacrifice in Heaven, but in the Upper Room, at the night before His Passion and Death on Golgotha – before going out to fight against devil.
To complete the whole analysis, it was shown that the practical consequence of the theology of the Passover and of the Eucharist is the need to renew in the Eucharistic communities the practice of the first centuries of Christianity, when the end of the official liturgy is not to disperse the faithful, but on the contrary – to persistently be in the prayer in the sacramental union with the Lord Jesus.
Keywords:
Moses, Passover, Pesachim, Mishnah, Haggadah, Afikoman, Cafun, Birkat hammazon, Judaism, treaty, covenant, law, celebration, rite, liturgy, Bible, Book of Exodus, four cups, prayer, Fathers, Church, exegesis, literary structure, genre, exodus, history, Jesus, Eucharist, Holy Mass, Holy Communion.

This essay details the nature of Simone Weil's metaphysical writings as properly 'religious'. This essay attends to this by considering Weil as responding to the human condition, and advocating a practical approach to her own thought. In the second section, the essay turns to ways in which Weil is a lived example of her own metaphysics, before moving to the final section in evaluating the paradoxical interrelationship of her musings-the paradoxical relationship between her life and her thought. Whilst only teetering on the edge between Christianity and atheism, Weil's spiritual path is evidently Christian for three major reasons: her solidarity with the affliction of others attends to love of neighbour; her lived hunger for God reflects her paradoxical thoughts on the Eucharist, in which she struggles to portray the 'right way' to salvation; and that her active receptivity is harmonious with a Christian conception of love. In the end, Weil was only human, and despite the saintliness attributed to her life and works, she struggled on her own path as how best to 'wait' for God.

"Our words indicate our thoughts, but our thoughts don't make anything happen…. It's not the same with God." In Speaking the Love of God: An Introduction to the Sacraments, Dr. Jacob W. Wood shows how Christ gives his Church the power to speak with God's voice in the seven sacraments. In this foundational guide to the sacraments, discover the power of the signs and words that transform us by grace and prepare us for glory.

Paul is alone among New Testament authors in using LXX Malachi’s τραπέζης κυρίου (trapeza kyriou, table of the Lord). In bringing his lengthy section on Christian freedom to a close, Paul addresses a specific concern of the Corinthian church: the eating of meat sacrificed to pagan idols. In 1 Cor 10:14–22 we see Paul use τραπέζης κυρίου and other Eucharistic language to frame the celebration of the Lord’s Supper as the ideal counter-example to this Corinthian practice. Why, in this setting, would Paul make use of Malachi’s phrase? What does τραπέζης κυρίου communicate to Paul’s audience that other Eucharistic language can not?

This paper will propose that Paul’s use of Malachi’s τραπέζης κυρίου (trapezēs kyriou) allows him to speak of the Eucharist in sacrificial terms and provides later Christian writers a New Testament precedent for using Malachi in a Eucharistic sense. It will be argued (1) that Paul certainly has Malachi’s disputation with the Levitical priest in mind when he uses τραπέζης κυρίου (trapezēs kyriou) in 1 Cor 10:21, (2) that the context of Malachi’s own use of τραπέζης κυρίου (trapezēs kyriou) provides a vision of a future, sacrificial worship of Yahweh by “the nations,” and (3) that Paul intends for these sacrificial overtones to be heard in his use of the Eucharist as a counter-example to the consummation of idol meat.

in New Theology Review vol. 18 (2005) 82-85.

Founded on Fidelity to Reality and Conversion to God's Reign, Liberation spirituality (and theology) grow on five pillars.
1) Contemplative Vision
2) Preferential Option for Poverty
3) Universal Brotherhood/Sisterhood
4) Eucharistic Communion
5) The Sign of the Cross

This essay examines R. F. Taft’s role in the papal decision to recognize the Addai and Mari Anaphora a true eucharistic prayer, but even more so the pros and cons of this decision. The main obstacle was the position that exactly the Lord’s words “This is my body” and “This is my blood” are the sacramental “form” of the Eucharist. Yet, R. F. Taft showed that the (Roman) Catholic teaching does not mean that the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ takes place exactly when these words are pronounced. It is more in line with tradition to hold that the transformation of the eucharistic gifts takes place because Christ himself pronounced these words on Holy Thursday and because, during the anaphora, prayers of thanksgiving, epiclesis and offering express the faith that the gifts are really transformed into Christ present in the sacrament.

For centuries, Christian theology has understood the Eucharist in terms of metaphysics or in protest against it. Today an opening has been made to imagine the sacrament through the method of phenomenology, bringing about new theological life and meaning. In Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist, Donald Wallenfang conducts a sustained analysis of the Eucharist through the aperture of phenomenology, yet concludes the study with poetic and metaphysical twists. Engaging the work of Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and Emmanuel Levinas, Wallenfang proposes pioneering ideas for contemporary sacramental theology that have vast implications for interfaith and interreligious dialogue. By tapping into the various currents within the Judeo-Christian tradition--Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant--a radical argument is developed that leverages the tension among them all. Several new frontiers are explored: dialectical theology, a fourth phenomenological reduction, the phenomenology of human personhood, the poetics of the Eucharist, and a reinterpretation of the concept of gift as conversation. On the whole, Wallenfang advances recent debates surrounding the relationship between phenomenology and theology by claiming an uncanny way out of emerging dead ends in philosophical theology: return to the fray.

This article uses the methods of historical anthropology to look at the evolution of practices associated with the Eucharist in the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet era. Beglov shows that during the Soviet period the frequency of individual communion increased by 5 – 10 times in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period, when most Orthodox Christians took communion no more than once a year. This evolution can be accounted for by exploring three processes associated with the rise of the USSR: 1) an “emancipation” of the ritual from functions related to state control; 2) the believers’ sense of existential fragility and insecurity under the new Soviet regime, which allowed for the same relaxation of pre-communion requirements that is permissible in the case of possibly imminent death; and 3) the blurring of the boundaries between the more intensive monastic practice and the ordinary lay practice that developed under the old regime.

The study describes some fundamental elements of Eucharistic doctrine of St Ambrose of Milan. It develops the idea of the Eucharist as the Bread of Life, as Nourishment on the Way and focuses especially on the Forgiveness of Sins and Spiritual Marriage. Especially the concept of Eucharist as Forgiveness of Sins is very original and it represents an invitation for the Christians of Milan to live every day from Christ who gives himself for them daily. Ambrose uses the means of a very personal symbolic theology to bring to the assembly not only the understanding of the Church doctrine, but also the desire to accomplish the union of the soul and the Church with the Christ. On top of that, he offers the Eucharist as a real answer to real needs of the Christians of his days and not only as an institution adapted from the Scriptures and the Tradition, but recognising it and celebrating is as something precious."

2019 dürfen wir auf 75 Jahre eucharistische Anbetung in Schifferstadt zurückblicken und haben allen Anlass zu großer Dankbarkeit und herzlicher Freude: Dank für die unzähligen Menschen, die sich in der Zeit seit 1944 vor dem Herrn eingefunden haben, um gemeinsam und für andere in der Stille zu beten, und Freude über all das Gute, das Gott die Beterinnen und Beter sowie viele über ihren Kreis hinaus hat erfahren lassen. Dieses besondere Jubiläum hat mich dazu bewogen, wieder einmal der Beziehung Edith Steins zum Sakrament der Eucharistie nachzuspüren und meinen Beitrag zu überarbeiten, den ich 2004 zum sechzigsten Jubiläum der Anbetung vorlegen durfte.

Objet majeur du trésor d'église, la monstrance eucharistique (ou ostensoir) apparaît dans la seconde moitié du XIIIe siècle afin de répondre aux nouvelles aspirations de la communauté religieuse et laïque. Celle-ci souhaite dorénavant voir et adorer le Corps du Christ, tout en participant plus activement aux différents rituels. Malgré un rôle incontournable dans la religion du bas Moyen Age, la monstrance eucharistique n'a jusqu'à présent, jamais fait l'objet d'une étude de synthèse. En menant une réflexion sur l'ensemble du territoire de la Chrétienté occidentale, cet ouvrage aborde sous plusieurs angles d'approche l'émergence, le développement et la place du réceptacle sacré dans la société médiévale et du début de la Renaissance. Pour ce faire, trois axes de recherche ont été privilégiés. Le premier examine les conditions d'apparition de la monstrance, tout en revenant sur rare idée longtemps admise d'une création ex nihilo de la pièce liturgique. Le deuxième se concentre sur "l'objet-ostensoir" avec un regard structurel et iconographique. Enfin, le dernier questionne les différents usages du vase liturgique, entre "simple" reliquaire de l'hostie consacrée et outil de propagande dans le contexte troublé de la Contre-Réforme.

Chapitre 8 de la thèse de doctorat de Bruno Restif, soutenue en décembre 2004 à l'Université Rennes 2 Haute-Bretagne sous la direction d'Alain Croix : La Paroisse, cadre d'application de la Réforme catholique en Haute-Bretagne (diocèses de Rennes, Dol et Saint-Malo). Histoire d'un processus de transformation religieuse et culturelle (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). Titre du chapitre 8 : Les dévotions : évolutions et permanences.

The article shows how the relationship between Church, city and politics is an issue that has been discussed in the Eucharistic congresses of the Church of Bologna. This analysis is focused on 1987 that can be considered as a watershed moment for the Church of Bologna in the second half of 1900. In particular, it examines some ideas on the complex relationship between the innermost life of the Church – the Eucharist – and men’s associated life, taken from a very significant text proposed by Giuseppe Dossetti on the occasion of that Congress. This analysis allows to find a series of historical elements as well as some useful perspectives to guide the life of the Church and the theology
that presently deals with politics.

The story of the feeding of the five-thousand is situated firmly at the centre of the Gospel of John’s so-called ‘Book of Signs’, which makes up the first half of the Gospel.  This paper takes the majority view that the Gospel was written likely in the years 90 to 95 CE. The author is thus most likely not the apostle John, which view has been adopted by tradition and is still held by some.  Matters of authorship are not particularly relevant to this paper, except to note that by convention the author will be referred to as ‘John’, by which we do not mean the Apostle necessarily, but whoever composed the text – either individual or group.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand is a well-known miracle story, and one of five miracles of Jesus feeding multitudes attested in the canonical gospels. It is found in all three synoptic gospels also and is paralleled by a miracle of the feeding of the four thousand in the gospels of Matthew and Mark.  In the Fourth Gospel it is surrounded by miracles and teachings, and notably it is set before the ‘Bread of Life’ Discourse later in the chapter. The image of the feeding of the five thousand with bread becomes a temporal link to the spiritual bread that Jesus refers to in his discourse. The echoes of eucharistic imagery are difficult to ignore , and may reflect a more developed church structure. It is certainly possible that this shows the beginning of a solidifying of cultic and ritual practices in the late first century.  The text by itself is a marvellous story of Jesus’ spiritual power. Just as the five thousand were well fed-on earth, with an abundance of leftover food, so too will the faithful be well-fed in the Kingdom. The people whom he has fed see something of this in Jesus, forcing him to escape to avoid being made king.  His time to rule is not yet here, yet the feeding is a symbol of the abundance that is to come.

The message of the miracle is a profoundly Christological one on several levels, and the following paragraphs will make the argument that John wants his readers to identify Jesus as a kingly figure and a Mosaic figure. John’s Jesus is unlike any other king, and is greater even than Moses. He can feed the hungry with an abundance of food. However, the bread that feeds the multitude and sustains their mortal life is an earthly, corporeal symbol of the heavenly food that will sustain their eternal life. Greater even than the provision of bread is his provision of the Bread of Life – his own body, through which the faithful gain eternal life.

Basically, this is the English translation of the text of the Eucharistic prayers from the late 1st century CE work known as the Didache, with key words in transliterated Greek to show their affinity with concepts in Gnosticism, not claiming that body as its sources but rather demonstrating their common ground.

This study assesses the present themes and gaps in the theology of food literature (TFL) as well as where there is fertile ground for the development of an explicit theology of joy. This task is accomplished by examining the most prominent themes in the current body of TFL as well as placing these works alongside Jürgen Moltmann's theology of joy to display the value of strengthening the TFL with a more fully developed theology of joy.

This chapter traces appeals to "catholicity" in various branches of the Scottish Reformed and English Protestant traditions. It contrasts some contemporary voices arguing for more frequent communion with authors who argued for more frequent communion in the English and Scottish churches in the 1700s and 1800s. By comparing and contrasting some of the similarities and discontinuities of communion frequency debates in the past, it provides theological and historical resources for those who are navigating issues of communion frequency in the present.

Dal percorso compiuto in questo studio la “teologia” emerge come ascolto eucaristico, conoscitivo, orante e silenzioso.
La parola “teologia” (da θεὸς λόγος), che nasce con Platone, nel pensiero greco rimanda a un discorso “su” Dio, dove Dio è l’oggetto della speculazione. Nella Bibbia il termine “teologia” non esiste e, poiché le parole composte con אל hanno Dio come soggetto, se esistesse rimanderebbe piuttosto a un discorso “di” Dio, al quale dovrebbe corrispondere l’ascolto dell’uomo. Sin dalla prima volta che Dio si rivolge all’uomo “parlando” – nella traduzione della LXX θεὸς τῷ Αδαμ λέγων (Gen 2,16a) – non viene però ascoltato: la donna, dopo aver ascoltato invece il serpente, avidamente “prende”, “mangia” e poi “dà” all’uomo il frutto dell’albero “della conoscenza del bene e del male” (o “del conoscere bene e male”). Nonostante i continui richiami dei profeti la storia che segue continua ad essere una sequenza di parole di Dio inascoltate, il lungo racconto di una “teo-logia” che non si realizza. Perché questo avvenga Dio va ancora oltre: si incarna, si fa parola che si offre in cibo. Nel Nuovo Testamento, nel racconto di Matteo sull’ultima cena (Mt 26,26 e paralleli), e poi nel finale del vangelo di Luca (Lc 24,30.41), riappaiono i verbi “prendere”, “dare” e “mangiare” della Genesi, ma con opposto significato: qui il Figlio, che vive nel perenne ascolto del Padre, “dà” se stesso per i discepoli i quali “prendono” e “mangiano” insieme il pane benedetto e spezzato per loro. In questo modo essi – nel Figlio – ascoltano Dio e lo riconoscono, mentre si conoscono come creati per accogliere il cibo della vita, l’eucaristia, da condividere con gli altri. Nel seguito dell’articolo vengono esaminati altri passi del Nuovo Testamento nei quali la “teo-logia” si conferma come ascolto che si realizza nell’eucaristia, fonte di conoscenza teologica che anela alla preghiera la quale nutre il silenzio che, a sua volta, si nutre di ascolto, eucaristia, e preghiera.
Lo studio si conclude con un breve ricordo dell’esperienza mistica di due santi, diversi e complementari: Tommaso d’Aquino e Faustina Kowalska.


From the path accomplished in this study “theology” emerges as a eucharistic, cognitive, prayerful and silent listening.
The word “theology” (from θεὸς λόγος), which is born with Plato, in Greek thought refers to a discourse “on” God, where God is the object of the speculation. In the Bible the term “theology” does not exist and, since the words composed with לא have God as subject, if it existed it would rather refer to a discourse “of” God, to whom the listening of the man should correspond. From the first time that God addresses to the human being “speaking” – in the translation of LXX θεὸς τῷ Αδαμ λέγων (Gen 2,16a) – he is not heard: the woman, after having listened instead to the serpent, greedily “takes”, “eats” and then “gives” to the man the fruit of the tree “of the knowledge of good and evil” (or “of knowing good and bad”). Despite the constant calls of the prophets the following history continues to be a sequence of unheard words of God, the long story of a “theology” which is not realized. For this to happen God goes even further: he incarnates himself, he makes himself a word offered in food. In the New Testament, in Matthew’s account on the Last Supper (Mt 26,26 and parallel), and then in the final of Luke’s Gospel (Lk 24,30.41), reappear the verbs “take”, “give” and “eat” of Genesis, but with opposite meaning: here the Son, who lives in the perennial listening of the Father, “gives” himself for the disciples who “take” and “eat” together the bread blessed and broken for them. In this way they hear – in the Son – God and recognize Him, while they know themselves as created to receive the food of life, the Eucharist, to be shared with others. Hereafter the article examines other passages from the New Testament in which the “theo-logy” is confirmed as a listening that is realized in the Eucharist, source of theological knowledge that yearns for prayer which nourishes the silence which, in turn, feeds itself with listening, Eucharist, and prayer. The study concludes with a brief reminder of the mystical experience of two different and complementary saints: Thomas d'Aquinas and Faustina Kowalska.

There is an interconnection between the Emmanuel theme and the theme of the forgiveness of sins in the Gospel of Matthew. It is systematically developed in the course of the gospel narrative. This article using the historical critical method exposes this development. According to the evangelist saving his people from their sins and being with them as Emmanuel are the two missions of Jesus in accordance with the divine plan (Matt 1:21, 23). Forgiveness of sins is an activity of God as well as an evidence of his presence. God’s presence is manifested in the person of Jesus who achieves the forgiveness of sins through the Institution Eucharist (26:26-29). Though saving from sins remains the mission of Jesus, it does not imply that the community of his disciples has no role to play in it. Instead, according to the Community Discourse (18:1-35), they have to participate in this mission by winning back their brothers and sisters who sin and also by forgiving one another.

This paper explores the unique Filipino way of celebrating Christmas. It investigates the syncretism of Filipino culture and religious tradition. In this contemporary world, such traditions and practices have been continuously commemorated traditionally. However, with modernism and consumerism, such practices became more complex. To examine the Christmas phenomenon in the Philippines, this study presents descriptive research of Catholic Filipinos which indicates Christmas has a deeper meaning. It supersedes religious expressions of gratitude. Rather, it is a time sought after by every Filipino far and near to gather-once families to re-connect and deepen family relations. This implies that the yearly Filipino Christmas celebration is more than a religious practice but is part of the culture and tradition that each and every Filipino household and communities live with.

The article interprets the so-called “Eucharistic section” in John 6:51–58 in the context of early Christian text on the Eucharist, especially Ignatius and Justin, but also Irenaeus and the Gospel of Philip. It interprets the Eucharist as a ritual by which, according to early Christian texts, canonical and non-canonical, the believers gain eternal life though their participation in Christ.

Peoples of the Near East greatly valuded wheat in their daily economy and religious beliefs. Christianity accorded it the very top place among plants. The author of this essay penetrates deep into the meaning and symbolism of wheat in the consecration rite at the Eucharist. For without it, the whole thing is quite simply invalid. In the first part of her paper, the author attempts to identify the exact kind of bread used at the Last Supper. She then discusses a number of reflections from the earliest Christian writers on wheat and Eucharist, following it with a survey of direct allusions to it in Christian art and church hymns. She concludes her research with an overview of references to wheat in canon law and the problem of the use of other matter in the Eucharist.