Speech On The Eucharist...

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

Blessed be God!

I attached a copy of my speech that I am giving on the Eucharist...Let me know what you think.

I attached it because it was easier for me.

With Charity,

Andy

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

How do you attach a word doccument?

[phatcatholic]

you should see a section called "File Attachments" underneath your "Post Icons". i do know that dUSt got rid of this feature for most of the board. when i asked him to restore it for my rooms, he may have just given it to me.

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

bummer...

I will just copy it and paste it...it won't be in very good format, but it's all good.

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

Blessed be God! (Speech for my speech class.)

[quote]I know religion is a very touchy subject because so many people feel so passionate about it.  Which is a wonderful thing, but my speech is not to persuade or argue religious beliefs but rather to discuss about a Catholic belief and inform you about its Biblical origins.  This belief according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the “Source and Summit of our Life.”  This source and summit is known as the Eucharist.  The word Eucharist means Thanksgiving in Greek and that is one thing it is.  But physically the Eucharist is Christ’s Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine during Holy Communion.  This may be a confusing concept even too most Catholic’s it is confusing.  But there are a few main reasons’ why Catholic’s believe in the Eucharist.  First is from Sacred Scripture (The Bible).  It support’s the belief of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  Second is Sacred Tradition, that is, the first Christian’s believed in this believe of the Eucharist.  There are several example’s from each of these reason’s that support this believe which is known by Catholic’s as “The Real Presence” and I will mention a few of the specific examples.

The first set of example’s come from the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament.)  This is a verse from Exodus 12: 1-8
[quote]Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;
And if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats;
and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening.
Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them.
They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it[/quote]
So a large number of people/families are to get together take a 1-year old lamb, that is without blemish, kill it on the 14th day of the month, sprinkle the blood on the door and eat the lamb’s flesh. Why would they do this? God told the Israelites who were enslaved that if they did this He would save their first-born child and it would result in them being set free. So the Israelites did this: their 1st born children were saved and Pharaoh set them free. Sweet, Tight, Dope, but what does this have to do with the Catholic belief of the Real Presence? Well to do this I am now going to jump to the New Testament in the Bible. This verse comes from John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” So John refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Later on in John’s Gospel 19:31-36 he says:
[quote]Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him;
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
He who saw it has borne witness--his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth--that you also may believe.
For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken."[/quote]
Jesus was without blemish for many reason’s...first because he was God, he was naturally without sin. Second he was physically without blemish because “not a bone of Him was broken.”(12:46) this goes back to the Exodus story, where their saving lamb had to be without blemish (no broken bones.)

So the lamb that saved Exodus first of all had to be a male without blemish.
Second it had to be killed.
Third the flesh had to be eaten.

Christ the Lamb of God was a male without blemish (both physical and by nature)
Second He was crucified.
Third His Flesh had to be eaten.

Also in the Gospel of John, Christ says in chapter 6 verses 53-54 that His flesh and blood had to be drunk:
[quote]So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.[/quote]

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthian’s he refers to what Jesus did at the last Passover Meal (Last Supper). (1 Corr. 11:23-24)
[quote]For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you.[/quote]
So Christ gave us His Flesh in the form of unleavened bread, which must be eaten according to John and many of the other Apostle’s.

To Catholic’s the Eucharist is the Flesh of the Lamb of God, which is to be eaten.
The Blood is to be marked on our bodies (drank) as a sign that God will free us as He freed the Israelites.

[b]St. Ignatius of Antioch said, “"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]).[/b]

St. Ignatius show’s how he believes that the Eucharist is Christ’s Flesh and Blood.

[b]St. Justin Martyr said, “For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).[/b]

St. Justin Martyr also shows how he believed that the Eucharist is “the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.”

[b]St. Augustine said, “That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ" (Sermons 227 [A.D. 411]).[/b]

St. Augustine also states his belief in the Real Presence.

As we can see since the first century Catholic’s believe in the Real Presence because of the examples and proof’s from the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Eucharist is something that is at the heart of Catholicism, it has so much more to it than what I described. If I were to give all the information about The Eucharist in this speech I would end up being a Super-Duper Senior still giving this speech. [/quote]

With Charity,

Andy