Communion

Sacraments:

They are sensible and effective signs of grace, instituted by Jesus Christ to sanctify our souls, and entrusted to the Church for its administration. The principal sacrament of God is Jesus. We say this because in Jesus, God manifested himself fully, just as he is. Knowing Jesus, we know God himself. Jesus is a sign of God. They have been called sacraments. They are signs and gestures that give the human being the opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ. These are signs of life, of love, of unity. They are community signs, in them the whole community of believers expresses itself as a reality, uniting hope and love. Through baptism one is born to spiritual life, through the Eucharist one is nourished. Our Saviour, at the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood in order to perpetuate for centuries, until his return, the sacrifice of his death and resurrection, a sacrament of piety, a sign of unity, a bond of love, a paschal banquet in which Christ is received, the soul is filled with grace and we are given a pledge of future glory! It is greatly admirable that Christ wished to make himself present in his Church in this singular way. Since Christ was going to leave his own in his visible form, he wished to give us his sacramental presence; since he was going to offer himself on the cross for our salvation, he wished us to have the memorial of the love with which he had loved us to the end! to the gift of his life. In fact, in his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously among us as one who loved us and gave himself for us, and he remains under the signs that express and communicate this love.