Eucharist means recognition, Thanksgiving, in Greek, is a celebration of the Catholic Church, to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is also called communion.
To receive the Eucharist, it is necessary to do catechesis, which are meetings where people learn about God, the Bible, a reflection on Catholicism. After catechesis, then the individual is prepared to make the first communion, which is usually made at the age of 7, which does not prevent other people from converting to Catholicism, and doing later. The Eucharist is one of the seven sacraments, which is when people receive the host, the symbol of the body of Christ in each one who makes communion.
The Eucharist is the very sacrifice of Jesus' body and blood, it is God's banquet, where he shares the bread and wine, represented by the host, and recalling the moment that Jesus did it, with his apostles, and each individual has the right to make the communion. Before communion, people have to be free from their sins by making confession to a priest.
The meaning of the Eucharist is to receive the host as the body of Christ that he offered on the cross, and the wine is his blood shed for the remission of mankind. In Catholicism, transubstantiation takes place during the Eucharist, that is, there is a change of substance, and the bread is transformed into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ.
In some religions such as Protestantism, the Eucharist is better known as Holy Communion, where people believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, eat bread and drink wine to remember the sacrifice made on the cross. It is customary for Holy Communion to be celebrated on the first Sunday of each month.
Eucharist in the Bible
According to the texts in the New Testament, the Eucharist is the rite of worship (sacrament and sacrifice) instituted by Jesus Christ in the last a supper in which he offers himself to God and communicates his body and blood into which the species bread and wine. This sacramental rite commemorates the passion and death of Jesus.
In the New Testament this rite was performed in the context of a communal meal (agape), but it soon became an independent rite linked to the preaching of the gospel. The Eucharist presents an analogy with the Passover meal of the Jews, due to the fact that the Last Supper was celebrated according to the Jewish Passover rite.
The double affirmation "this is my body" and "this is my blood" and the separation of the elements of life (body and blood represented in the bread and wine) symbolize and they actualize (according to Mark 14:24) the death of Christ as a victim: the body that is slain and the blood that is shed, in clear reference to the sacrifice of the Calvary.
In Ignatius of Antioch (in the year 110), the rite receives the name Eucharist for the first time and asserts itself as the center of worship that Christians practice along with the reading of sacred texts.
see the Definition of Holy Week.
