Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"
Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass. He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist. You can read about it here.
Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass. He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist. You can read about it here.
Excerpt:
The God who is
above everything we can think of, who is the very reason that we live and the
reason that the universe exists, humbled himself to become a part of creation.
This is in direct opposition to fallen humanity that sought “to become like
God” when it disobeyed God’s command in the Garden of Eden.
Our desire to
be in control is part of our fallen nature. Many of us live with an illusion
that we are in control. We are taught to plan for every eventuality,to insure
ourselves for every possible disaster, but if we do not realize that only God
is in control, we are living in a fantasy world. Think of the parable that
Jesus told of the rich man (see Luke 12:16–21) who built bigger barns to store
his large harvest; he was foolish, Jesus said, because he was to die that
night. His material wealth could not save or help him once he was in the grave.
The rich man thought he was in control of his destiny but, like every one of
us, found out that he was not — God was and is.
Jesus rescues
us from the chaos that life is without him. Pope John Paul II has said, “In the
Eucharist our God has shown love in the extreme, overturning all those criteria
of power which too often govern human relations and radically affirming the
criterion of service:‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and
servant of all’ (Mk 9:35). It is not by chance that the Gospel of John contains
no account of the institution of the Eucharist,but instead relates the ‘washing
of the feet’ (cf. Jn 13:1–20): by bending down to wash the feet of his
disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist unequivocally.”6
