EUCHARIST

Celebrating Union with Jesus and Each

Other

A Celebration1. Have you ever been part of a celebration? A birthday

party is a celebration2. Did you have a birthday party?3. Did you go to a birthday party?

Here is a medal. Dou you know someone who receive a medal? That is a celebration!

Some students receive a medal for spelling, or for service in school during recess.

Perhaps you attended the celebration of an athlete: someone who does very well in sports and receives a trophy.

Celebrating A Person Celebration is not only the event or the trophy; we are really

celebrating a person.1. What do we need to celebration? We need a place2. What else? People

You don’t want to celebrate alone. We need to have an invitation. Someone has to invite us to welcome us.

Someone has to prepare the Celebration, 1. Make a birthday cake, 2. or make sure that the trophy is there,3. Or there is a banquet room with table and chairs.

We talk and Exchange Ideas What do we do when first go in to a birthday

celebration? Do we just walk in and say “Happy Birthday,” eat the cake and

leave? NO! or do we walk in, grab the trophy and leave? No!

We walk in, greet people, and start hearing words like:1) “Hi, I am glad you came.” 2) Or, “come over here…”3) Oh I am scared to receive my trophy..”4) Or “you are wearing a very nice dress.”5) Or “your father is so proud that you won the trophy.”

We talk and exchange ideas.

Getting Closer to the One Who is Celebrated1. When you have a birthday party, your friends and

you guests give you gifts. But you don’t just take your gifts, run into your room, and open them!

2. If you receive a trophy , you don’t put it under a table!

3. What do we do? We share our gifts. That is when a REAL CELEBRATION take place, when you

share, 1) When you start getting closer to each other, 2) and to the One Who is celebrated.

A Celebration of Jesus is Present Today, we will talk about

something precious that we received in our faith:

A Celebration that goes beyond any other celebration, we can think of!

It Is A Celebration that has been given to us by Jesus Christ.

He gave it to us himself,1) and we call it MASS 2) or Eucharist.

A Celebration of Jesus is Present We call it MASS or Eucharist. It is the greatest Gift we have ever been

given!

EUCHARIST is a Greek word, it means THANKSGIVING

It is the greatest thanksgiving gift we can give to God The Father through Jesus his Son, Our lord.

A Place where Jesus is Present

1. We said that we need a place, In our Church we have a place: our parish church where Jesus is present.

2. Our invitation from Jesus Christ. He invites us through the Priest. We also invited by Church community. It is very

important!3. And each of us is among the

community, here, somewhere! We are part of the community.

THE WORD Preparation for the Celebration

1. The Priest and the Church community prepare the Celebration. Even the preparation begins to bring us all closer.

2. We mentioned an exchange of words when we first talked about celebrations. This comes from a special book, the Bible (book) or

Scripture (writings) where we have the word of God. God speaks to us through this book. A reader goes up and reads the first reading from the

EPITLES (letters), or the Old Testament.3. Then the Priest or Deacon reads the Gospel and

explains what God is saying to us. He says, The Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ!” We listen to the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

The Crucifix and the Candles We have here some articles that we use during Mass.1. THE CRUCIFIX is important, and we see it first.

It is held high when the procession begins.

2. We stand and sing praise to Jesus Christ. Because he loved us, he died for us, so that we can have life

eternal That is why we stand and praise Jesu for his love.

3. THE CANDLES stand for life eternal. They are placed o the altar. They represent Jesus who is the Light for us, he give us Eternal

life (Grace) The candles continually remind us of Jesus during the Eucharist.

SINGPreparation for Celebration

1. What do we do at a celebration, when we hear good news? We respond! We are asked to do just that, as a Church

community: respond!

2. How do we respond to God? Everyone wants to hear us say, “praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!”

3. During the celebration we also sing, we praise God, we thank him for his love.

Offering of Gifts1. There is an unusual exchange of gifts at our

celebration. 2. We offer the gifts of bread and wine,

and as Jesus promised, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

in the Priest He becomes truly present in this gifts.

3. These gifts become his Body and Blood. Now, this is a celebration!

a) We hear the word of God and absorb it; b) we take the BODY and BLOOD OF JESUS

CHRIST and consume him.4. This is reason for celebrating! It is beyond all

the celebrations!

The Great Celebration

The Scriptures are Carried The Sacramentary is carried in with all the prayers for Mass. The Lectionary contains the Scriptures,

the Bible, the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, the Gospels.

When the reader raise it high and then reads from it, listen well because God is going to speak to us.

1. What will he say that we don’t want to miss hearing? I love you.. You are precious.. Thank you for loving Me…”

At the end,, the reader or the Priest says, “The Word of the Lord” or “The Good New of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Believe me, there is Good News in the Scripture! So, look and listen to the reading!

The Offering of Gifts As we continue on in the Eucharistic celebration, we come to a

very special part where you and I are asked to participate: the offering of gifts

A Special Bread is prepared for Mass, and we call it “host” At the beginning the hosts are just ordinary bread.

They are not consecrated yet, The Priest did not change them into the Body of Christ yet,

THE WINE we present in jars

Together with the Bread And Wine, we also presenting and offering ourselves to God.

The Bread and Wine represents the whole Church community. If you are not asked to take up the offering, then watch those who take it up to the Priest at the altar.

In you heart, be part of the presentation, offer yourself to God.

By the Power of The Holy Spirit the Gifts are Change Then watch closely what comes next: 1. The Priest, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, has

the power to change our gifts.2. Through the bread and wine, we will receive the

Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We will take him to ourselves, love him and hold him As we approach the Body of Jesus, 1) make a home for Jesus Christ, he is waiting to enter!2) Prepare your heart for the coming of the Savior!

We Receive and Share Christ with the World1. Does our celebration stay in the Church community?

NO!a. We cannot keep this thanksgiving celebration within

walls!b. As a matter of fact, at the end, we are sent c. to go and tell the Good News we received and to share the

Christ, whom we have taken to ourselves.2. The only response we can give is: “Thanks be to God”

thanksgiving to God at the end of the celebration!

3. How can it be that during this wonderful celebration some of us can get bored, or even daydream?

a) Because we are not prepared for the Eucharist;b) or we don’t know what we are looking at.

Celebration of Thanksgiving

We talked about Celebration of Thanksgiving. 1) Make sure you notice the crucifix.2) Listen the Word3) Notice the candles that represent our Light, Jesus.4) In your heart be part of the procession, in the

presentation of Gifts5) Welcome Jesus into your heart.

I hope that this helps us to prepare for the Eucharistic Celebration, and to understand it better.

Next time you go to Mass, you can look and see where Jesus is, and how you can meet him.

It is a great Celebration of Jesus’ love for us!

Receive and Share Jesus With the World