The SalvationHistory.com Library of Apologetics - Eucharist and the Mass

 Eucharist
From The Catholic Encyclopedia. See also:
- The Blessed Eucharist as a Sacrament
- The Blessed Eucharist as a Sacrifice
- Early Symbols of the Eucharist
- Real Presence
- Holy Communion
- Liturgy
- Liturgy of the Mass (Roman)
- Ambrosian Liturgy (St. Ambrose)
- Celtic Rite (Ireland, Britain) 
- Sarum Rite (England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales)
- Gallican Rite (France)
- Mozarabic (Spain, Portugal)
- Frequent Communion
- Communion under Both Kinds
- Communion of Children
- Communion of the Sick
- Viaticum


 Glossary of Liturgical Objects
Covers such items as the Book of the Gospels, Ciborium, Cruets, Monstrance, Ambo, etc. Also helpful:
- Vessels and Linens of the Mass


 Biblical Texts Related to the Catholic Mass
An excellent guide by Father Felix Just, S.J.


 The Eucharist in Scripture
A good, short collection of texts and interpretations.


 Church Fathers on the Eucharist
A good collection of basic texts on:
- The Real Presence
- Transubstantiation

See also, the fine collection of citations in:
- The Church Fathers Believed in the Real Presence

 Understanding the Mass
An excellent, lavishly illustrated, walk through the parts of the Mass by Father Charles Belmonte.


 The Antiquity of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation
Although more than 100 years old, still a good look at the evidence in the language of the ancient liturgies of the Church.


 Saints and Popes on The Eucharist
A good collection of short quotations.


 Let Us Love the Most Blessed Sacrament
A short meditation by St. Peter Julian Eymard.


 A Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament
By St. Thomas More. A short piece composed in the Tower of London in 1534, the year before his martyrdom.


 Eucharist and the Mass
Frank Sheed's classic explanation, from Theology for Beginners.


 Calvary and the Mass: A Missal Companion
A fine meditation by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.


 Meditations Before Mass
By Father Romano Guardini, one of the pioneers of authentic liturgical reform in the 20th century.


 The Sacrifice of the Mass: The Eucharistic Words of Christ
On the critical importance of understanding the Mass as sacrifice. A quote: "Jesus transformed the Passover meal of the Old Covenant with Israel into the Eucharist of His New Covenant with His new Israel, His Church." By Msgr. Peter Elliot.
- Part 2 


 Rediscovering the Holy Sacrifice
Dominican Father Aidan Nichols, compares Pope John Paul II'ss encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia with the eucharistic writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.


 The Eucharist Sacrifice - Banquet of the New Covenant
A quote: "From ancient biblical times the sacred union of covenant was constituted by means of a sacrifice and/or a sacred banquet. The Lord Jesus used these familiar methods at the Last Supper to establish God's New and Everlasting Covenant. To establish this Covenant, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which He made both a sacrifice and a sacred meal...By establishing the New Covenant through the Eucharist, Jesus made His Spouse the Church to be a Eucharistic People by reason of her very origin." By Msgr. Anthony A. La Femina.


 Angels and Archangels: The Worship of Heaven and Earth
A fine consideration of the heavenly liturgy, drawing on the writings of the Fathers of the Church. By Robert Louis Wilken.


 Heaven and Earth in Byzantine Liturgy (Byzantine Catholic)
By Khaled Anatolios. A quote: "The Byzantine liturgy is always concerned to proclaim that by the power of the Holy Spirit space, time, and even human sinfulness are transformed and integrated into the union of earth and heaven accomplished by the unsurpassable self-offering of Christ....Ultimately the Byzantine liturgy is about the startling good news that once we were lost on earth and in bondage to sin and death, but now earth itself is lost in heaven, in thrall to the love and beauty of the triune God."


 Passage to Heaven: An Appreciation of the Divine Liturgy (Byzantine Catholic)
A fine treatment of the various parts of the Mass, written from a Melkite Catholic perspective. See also from the same perspective:
- The Heavenly Liturgy
- Come Let Us Worship Christ Our God: Introduction to the Theology of the Divine Liturgy


 Parousia and Liturgy
Looks at the relationship between the Eucharist and ancient Catholic understandings of the "second coming" or "return of the Lord."  By Margaret Barker, a lay scholar of Judaism and ancient Christianity.


 The Language of Adoration
As considered in The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis de Sales.


 Jesus and the High Priest
A study of the Biblical idea of priesthood and its relationship to the New Testament understanding of Jesus' high priestly role. By Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis.


 The Temple Roots of the Liturgy
A fine study of the influence of Jewish worship on the development of the early Catholic liturgy. By Margaret Barker.


 Eucharist, Communion and Solidarity
On the "transformative" power of the Sacrament. By Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. Also highly recommended are Cardinal Ratzinger's:
- The Greatest Mystery
- The Theology of Kneeling


 The Veil, the Chalice and the Dignity of Man
Father Jerry Pokorsky says that "like the sacred vessels at Mass, we were made to receive Christ."


 A Theological Meditation On The Liturgy Of The Eucharist
Cistercian Father Roch Kereszty sees the Eucharist as the continual reenactment of God's self-emptying love.


 Silence and the Sacred
A good meditation on the need to recover the sense of awe and mystery at the Mass. By Father Ralph Wright, O.S.B.


 Sacred Signs and Active Participation at Mass
"Active participation" and the meaning of bodily gestures required in the Liturgy. By Father Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.


 The Mystery of the Blessed Eucharist
Cardinal Charles Journet shows the gulf between Catholic belief in the Real Presence with Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines. A quote: "The Catholic Church will never accept the essential equivalence between the doctrine of the Council of Trent and the conflicting doctrines - at variance also with each other - of Luther and of Calvin. The day on which the Church were to accept it, she would cease to exist, she would become Protestant."


 The Tabernacle: Its History, Structure and Custody
A good history not only of the tabernacle, but of the practice of reserving the Holy Eucharist in it.


 Origins and Meaning of the Christian Altar
A good historical overview.


 Ordinary Faith in the Eucharist
A warm personal reflection by the late Father Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. Cap., the only American on the Pontifical Theological Academy.


 Old Testament Paradigms for New Testament Worship
A good treatment by Walter Maier, a Lutheran scholar. A quote: "Worship deals with the changeless God who has acted in the past, who continues to act in the present, and who will act in the future, as His Word makes clear."


 Vertical Typology and Christian Worship
Horace D. Hummel's contribution to a symposium on worship hosted by the Lutheran Concordia Theological Seminary. A quote: "The prayers introducing the Sanctus emphasize that, if the angels praise God without ceasing, what they do is the telos toward which everything else tends. Singing the Sanctus will not someday be replaced by something else. They are words on loan from the heavenly choirs, and give us a sampling of what will occupy us throughout eternity. But already now they allow us to discern the intimate link between the worship we offer and the liturgy of eternity. Our present worship is a sort of apprenticeship for what is to come. Our faces are turned toward God, not toward society. Any instrumental approach to the liturgy, e.g., for outreach or for catechesis, misunderstands the doxological essence of what a vertical typology can teach us, that it is not primarily intended to edify man but to contemplate and thank the Triune God and what the Son came down to do 'for us men and for our salvation.'" (pdf files, requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

 From One Eucharistic Prayer to Many: How it Happened and Why
A good historical study by Father Cassian Folsom, O.S.B. Originally published in Adoremus Bulletin.


Eucharistic Adoration

 The Holy of Eucharistic Adoration
A good introduction to this devotion.

 Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Handbook
A practical guide to beginning Eucharistic Adoration in your local parish.


 The Reserved Eucharist
A thoughtful reflection by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion.


 The Hour that Makes My Day
Archbishop Fulton Sheen on Eucharist adoration.


 The Veneration of the Holy of Holies
A lofty meditation on adoration of the Eucharist by the great theologian Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar.