Celebrating Eucharist, How to Celebrate Eucharist, Understanding the Celebration

1. Celebrating Union with
Jesus and Each Other

2. A Celebration
1. Have you ever been part of a celebration? A birthday party is a
celebration
2. Did you have a birthday party?
3. Did you go to a birthday party?
 Here is a medal.
 Dou you know someone who receive a medal?
 That is a celebration!
 Some students receive a medal for spelling, or for service in school
during recess.
 Perhaps you attended the celebration of an athlete: someone who does
very well in sports and receives a trophy.

3. Celebrating A Person
 Celebration is not only the event or the trophy; we are really
celebrating a person.
1. What do we need to celebration? We need a place
2. What else? People
 You don’t want to celebrate alone.
 We need to have an invitation.
 Someone has to invite us to welcome us.
 Someone has to prepare the Celebration,
1. Make a birthday cake,
2. or make sure that the trophy is there,
3. Or there is a banquet room with table and chairs.

4. We talk and Exchange Ideas
 What do we do when first go in to a birthday celebration?
 Do we just walk in and say “Happy Birthday,” eat the cake and leave? NO!
 or do we walk in, grab the trophy and leave? No!
 We walk in, greet people, and start hearing words like:
1) “Hi, I am glad you came.”
2) Or, “come over here…”
3) Oh I am scared to receive my trophy..”
4) Or “you are wearing a very nice dress.”
5) Or “your father is so proud that you won the trophy.”
 We talk and exchange ideas.

5. Getting Closer to the One Who is Celebrated
1. When you have a birthday party, your friends and you
guests give you gifts.
 But you don’t just take your gifts, run into your room, and open them!
2. If you receive a trophy , you don’t put it under a table!
3. What do we do?
 We share our gifts.
 That is when a REAL CELEBRATION take place, when you
share,
1) When you start getting closer to each other,
2) and to the One Who is celebrated.

8. A Celebration of Jesus is Present
 Today, we will talk about something
precious that we received in our faith:
 A Celebration that goes beyond any other
celebration, we can think of!
 It Is A Celebration that has been given to us
by Jesus Christ.
 He gave it to us himself,
1) and we call it MASS
2) or Eucharist.

9. A Celebration of Jesus is Present
 We call it MASS or Eucharist.
 It is the greatest Gift we have ever been
given!
 EUCHARIST is a Greek word, it means
THANKSGIVING
 It is the greatest thanksgiving gift we can
give to God The Father through Jesus his Son,
Our lord.

10. A Place where Jesus is
Present
1. We said that we need a place,
 In our Church we have a place:
 our parish church where Jesus is present.
2. Our invitation from Jesus Christ.
 He invites us through the Priest.
 We also invited by Church community. It is very
important!
3. And each of us is among the community, here,
somewhere!
 We are part of the community.

11. THE WORD
Preparation for the Celebration
1. The Priest and the Church community prepare the
Celebration.
 Even the preparation begins to bring us all closer.
2. We mentioned an exchange of words when we first talked
about celebrations.
 This comes from a special book, the Bible (book) or Scripture
(writings) where we have the word of God.
 God speaks to us through this book.
 A reader goes up and reads the first reading from the EPITLES
(letters), or the Old Testament.
3. Then the Priest or Deacon reads the Gospel and explains
what God is saying to us.
 He says, The Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
 We listen to the Good News of the Lord Jesus.

12. The Crucifix and the Candles
 We have here some articles that we use during Mass.
1. THE CRUCIFIX is important, and we see it first.
 It is held high when the procession begins.
2. We stand and sing praise to Jesus Christ.
 Because he loved us, he died for us, so that we can have life
eternal
 That is why we stand and praise Jesu for his love.
3. THE CANDLES stand for life eternal.
 They are placed o the altar.
 They represent Jesus who is the Light for us, he give us Eternal
life (Grace)
 The candles continually remind us of Jesus during the Eucharist.

13. SING
Preparation for Celebration
1. What do we do at a celebration, when we hear good
news?
 We respond!
 We are asked to do just that, as a Church community:
respond!
2. How do we respond to God?
 Everyone wants to hear us say,
 “praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!”
3. During the celebration we also sing,
 we praise God, we thank him for his love.

14. Offering of Gifts
1. There is an unusual exchange of gifts at our
celebration.
2. We offer the gifts of bread and wine,
 and as Jesus promised, through the power of the Holy
Spirit,
 in the Priest He becomes truly present in this gifts.
3. These gifts become his Body and Blood. Now, this is a
celebration!
a) We hear the word of God and absorb it;
b) we take the BODY and BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST and
consume him.
4. This is reason for celebrating! It is beyond all the
celebrations!

15. The Great Celebration

16. The Scriptures are Carried
 The Sacramentary is carried in with all the prayers for Mass.
 The Lectionary contains the Scriptures,
 the Bible, the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, the
Gospels.
 When the reader raise it high and then reads from it, listen well
because God is going to speak to us.
1. What will he say that we don’t want to miss hearing?
 I love you.. You are precious.. Thank you for loving Me…”
 At the end,, the reader or the Priest says,
 “The Word of the Lord”
 or “The Good New of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 Believe me, there is Good News in the Scripture! So, look and
listen to the reading!

17. The Offering of Gifts
 As we continue on in the Eucharistic celebration, we come to a
very special part where you and I are asked to participate: the
offering of gifts
 A Special Bread is prepared for Mass, and we call it “host”
 At the beginning the hosts are just ordinary bread.
 They are not consecrated yet,
 The Priest did not change them into the Body of Christ yet,
 THE WINE we present in jars
 Together with the Bread And Wine, we also presenting and
offering ourselves to God.
 The Bread and Wine represents the whole Church community.
 If you are not asked to take up the offering,
 then watch those who take it up to the Priest at the altar.
 In you heart, be part of the presentation, offer yourself to God.

18. By the Power of The Holy Spirit the Gifts
are Change
 Then watch closely what comes next:
1. The Priest, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, has the
power to change our gifts.
2. Through the bread and wine, we will receive the Body
and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 We will take him to ourselves, love him and hold him
 As we approach the Body of Jesus,
1) make a home for Jesus Christ, he is waiting to enter!
2) Prepare your heart for the coming of the Savior!

19. We Receive and Share Christ with the
World
1. Does our celebration stay in the Church community? NO!
a. We cannot keep this thanksgiving celebration within walls!
b. As a matter of fact, at the end, we are sent
c. to go and tell the Good News we received and to share the
Christ, whom we have taken to ourselves.
2. The only response we can give is: “Thanks be to God”
 thanksgiving to God at the end of the celebration!
3. How can it be that during this wonderful celebration
some of us can get bored, or even daydream?
a) Because we are not prepared for the Eucharist;
b) or we don’t know what we are looking at.

20. Celebration of
Thanksgiving
 We talked about Celebration of Thanksgiving.
1) Make sure you notice the crucifix.
2) Listen the Word
3) Notice the candles that represent our Light, Jesus.
4) In your heart be part of the procession, in the
presentation of Gifts
5) Welcome Jesus into your heart.
 I hope that this helps us to prepare for the
Eucharistic Celebration, and to understand it better.
 Next time you go to Mass, you can look and see where
Jesus is, and how you can meet him.
 It is a great Celebration of Jesus’ love for us!