II. What is This Sacrament Called?
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The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different
names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it. It is called:
Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. the Greek words
eucharistein139 and eulogein140 recall the Jewish blessings
that proclaim - especially during a meal - God's works: creation, redemption,
and sanctification.
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The Lord's Supper, because of its connection with the supper which the Lord
took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates
the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem.141
The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meat when
as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread,142 above
all at the Last Supper.143 It is by this action that his disciples will
recognize him after his Resurrection,144 and it is this expression that
the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies;145
by doing so they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter
into communion with him and form but one body in him.146
The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is celebrated amid
the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the Church.147
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The memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection.
The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the
Savior and includes the Church's offering. the terms holy sacrifice of the
Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice, pure and holy
sacrifice are also used,148 since it completes and surpasses all the
sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
The Holy and Divine Liturgy, because the Church's whole liturgy finds its
center and most intense expression in the celebration of this sacrament; in the
same sense we also call its celebration the Sacred Mysteries. We speak of the
Most Blessed Sacrament because it is the Sacrament of sacraments. the Eucharistic
species reserved in the tabernacle are designated by this same name.
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Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who
makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.149 We
also call it: the holy things (ta hagia; sancta)150 - the first meaning
of the phrase "communion of saints" in the Apostles' Creed - the
bread of angels, bread from heaven, medicine of immortality,151
viaticum....
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Holy Mass (Missa), because the liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is
accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the faithful, so that
they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives.
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