In April 2003, Pope John Paul II issued his new encyclical on the Blessed Sacrament, Ecclesia de Eucharistia Church of the Eucharist). Perhaps the most powerful document of his entire papacy, it's an awesome spiritual treasury of teaching on the "central" mystery" of our Faith - the Holy Eucharist! Faithful Catholics everywhere are greeting these words of the Supreme Pontiff with joy, but the fact that they needed to be written at all is both revealing and disturbing. Why would the highest-ranking prelate in the world find it necessary to compose an official document of the Church devoted to teachings that every Catholic should already believe, know and love?
A "Tightening Up" In the timely new series, Sacrament Most Holy: The Urgent Message of Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Fr. Shannon Michael Collins, CPM, unpacks the Pope's latest Encyclical to reveal the Holy Father's urgent message to you regarding the source and summit of your Catholic Faith. Recorded live at Mother Angelica's Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery and available now on three CDs or cassettes, Fr. Shannon describes the Pope's letter as a welcome rejection of liturgical abuse and religious indifference and a "tightening up" of the doctrine and practices of the Church concerning the Holy Eucharist.
Return To Reverence As Father's insightful commentary unfolds, you'll discover Pope John Paul's frustration that the Eucharist is often "celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet", that "Eucharistic Adoration has been almost completely abandoned", how liturgical abuses have led to "confusion with regard to sound faith and Catholic doctrine" concerning the Blessed Sacrament, why the Mass is "too important and precious" to compromise by "innovative" practices, how many of these abuses have been "institutionalized" and most important what's to be done about it!
Personal Perspective Promulgated on the anniversary of Christ's institution of the priesthood, this document emerges as one of Pope John Paul II's most personal. You'll gain a new perspective into the heart of the Holy Father as Fr. Collins relates JPII's reminiscences about celebrating the Holy Sacrifice, from his first mass as a simple parish priest to the humbling experience of offering the Eucharistic sacrifice in the Cenacle, the very upper room where Christ Himself offered the first Mass at the Last Supper.
Learn:
Why the Eucharist is "A sacrifice in the strict sence"
How the Mass is like a time machine
How Eucharistic Adoration "is of inestimable value"
Why the Eucharist, celebrated by a priest, is "a gift that radically trancends the power of the assembly
How doctrine and practice go together
How celebrating Mass facing the people is not an ancient practice
Why extraordinary ministers should not be used in ordinary circumstances
How liturgical abuses have been institutionalized
Why it is "unthinkable" to substitute "ecumenical celebrations" for Sunday Mass