Continuing our reflection on Sacramentum Caritatis, let us remember Pope Benedict's theological assumptions: (1) in Jesus' life, death, and Resurrection, God reveals self as Trinity, whose very life is self-giving love; (2) fulfilling the divine plan of salvation and sanctification, God, through Christ, has given the Holy Spirit to the Church as sharing source with Christ of our faith and as the abiding Presence that binds us to Christ; (3) through Jesus' gift of self in response to God's love, God has established a new and unbreakable covenant with the human race. This covenant is renewed when we celebrate the Eucharist.

These themes will remain central in the presentation of the relationship between the celebration of the Eucharist and the rest of the life of the Church. The Pope challenges us to live the mystery we celebrate.

The Eucharist and the Sacraments
The sacramentality of the Church
16. The fact that the Church is the "universal sacrament of salvation" shows how the sacramental economy ultimately determines the way that Christ . . . through the Spirit, reaches our lives . . . . The Church receives and at the same time expresses what she herself is in the seven sacraments . . . .

Christ reaches our lives in the sacraments—expressions of God's self-giving, proclamations of the truth that God is love. In her sacramental celebrations the Church receives and expresses its life as gift of God. As we pray together, we can learn to let our day become an act of worship.

Pope Benedict says that every Catholic should experience the celebration of the Eucharist as the source and summit of our prayer and ministry. Do I also find that other prayers draw me to the Eucharist?

The Eucharist, the fullness of Christian initiation
17. It must never be forgotten that our reception of Baptism and Confirmation is ordered to the Eucharist. Accordingly, our pastoral practice should reflect a more unitary understanding of the process of Christian initiation.

Since the Eucharist is source and summit of the Church's life and ministry, Christian initiation must be seen as directed to reception of the sacrament. Is the link among Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist sufficiently recognized? In my experience, how are these sacraments related to each other? How does our parish illustrate their connection with each other?

The order of the sacraments of initiation
18. Attention needs to be paid to the order of the sacraments of initiation. . . . Bishops' Conferences should examine the effectiveness of current approaches to Christian initiation, so that the faithful can be helped both to mature through the formation received in our communities and to give their lives an authentically eucharistic direction, so that they can offer a reason for the hope within them in a way suited to our times.

In both the Eastern and the Western Church, adults are initiated through a process that culminates in a celebration of the sacraments of initiation. The East has preserved that unified celebration for the initiation of children; the West separates the rites and, in most places, confirms after the child has received the Eucharist. This, says the Pope, is a pastoral practical difference, but there is doctrinal agreement on the proper sequence of the initiation sacraments. He asks if we might show more clearly the unity of these sacraments, so that the Eucharist is experienced as the center of initiation. If more Catholics understood the Eucharist as the focus of their lives, they could more readily "offer a reason for the hope within them."

Does our parish often celebrate adult initiation at the Easter Vigil? Does that celebration speak clearly about the relation of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist? How has my understanding of these sacraments changed since we began celebrating them this way?

Initiation, the ecclesial community and the family
19. In pastoral work, it is always important to make Christian families part of the process of initiation.

The entire Church is involved in a process of conversion. Initiation involves the worshipping community, into which the newly baptized person is incorporated, through the celebration of Eucharist with the rest of the community. The family bringing up baptized children is an agent in the work of God. What elements of our first Communion celebrations seem most welcoming? How do I encourage parents and their children in our Sunday celebration?

Their intrinsic relationship
20. An authentic catechesis on the meaning of the Eucharist must include the call to pursue the path of penance. . . . Bringing out the elements within the rite of Mass that express consciousness of personal sin and, at the same time, of God's mercy, can prove most helpful to the faithful. Furthermore, the relationship between the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation reminds us that sin is never a purely individual affair; it always damages the ecclesial communion that we have entered through Baptism.

Celebration of the Eucharist puts us on the path of penance, as we embrace God's plan for our lives. To accept the grace of conversion, we must be aware of the reality of our sin. We try to let this conversion occur in every aspect of our lives. Does our celebration of the Eucharist put us in touch with the communal impact of our sins? Does it help us engage in the process of conversion? Celebration of penitential liturgies and communal celebrations of the sacrament of Penance can deepen our understanding of sin and repentance, and help us embrace the conversion the Eucharist celebrates.

Though we're encouraged to celebrate communally, all three forms of the Rite of Penance emphasize the ecclesial nature of the celebration. Every sacramental confession is a liturgy of the Church. Is it surprising to think of Confession as worship? How might I prepare better to celebrate this sacrament?

Some pastoral concerns
21. Bishops have the pastoral duty of promoting within their Dioceses a reinvigorated catechesis on the conversion born of the Eucharist, and of encouraging frequent confession among the faithful. . . . The use of indulgences helps us to understand that by our efforts alone we would be incapable of making reparation for the wrong we have done . . . .

We're urged to a deeper catechesis, to study and prayer in the transformation of our lives. For us to deepen our commitment to letting God change us, our parish priests are asked to provide opportunities to celebrate Reconciliation. Confessionals or reconciliation rooms should be visible and dignified.

To encourage both communal and individual celebration of the sacrament, and to help the clergy build their skills in presiding at this prayer of the Church, every bishop is encouraged to appoint a Penitentiary, a priest who will help the diocese build the quality of its celebration.

The Pope also encourages us to recover the tradition of indulgences, of prayer offered for those who have died as well as for ourselves. This tradition emphasizes that we not only help each other through our prayer and our works of charity, but that we also engage in reparation for wrongs committed around the world. Indulgenced prayers are rooted in the community of the Church; they involve both sacramental Confession and Communion; by their nature they teach and celebrate the communion of saints. Indulgenced prayers express the unity of Christ's body and strengthen the bonds that tie us together in Christ. In this way they are directly related to the mutual love which is the res or the deepest meaning of the Eucharist. For whom do I pray? What departed persons have been most important for my life of faith?

Their intrinsic relationship
22. If the Eucharist shows how Christ's sufferings and death have been transformed into love, the Anointing of the Sick, for its part, unites the sick with Christ's self-offering for the salvation of all, so that they too, within the mystery of the communion of saints, can participate in the redemption of the world. The relationship between these two sacraments becomes clear in situations of serious illness . . . communion in the Body and Blood of Christ appears as the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection.

Through the sacrament of the sick, persons are helped to unite their sufferings with those of Christ, pray for the salvation of all, and experience the faithfulness of God. Viaticum is the sacrament of the dying, which the faithful are obliged to receive, if possible. Priests need to be dedicated to celebrating the Eucharist in sickrooms, when possible, and to the celebration of Viaticum outside of Mass.

In persona Christi capitis
23. The connection between Holy Orders and the Eucharist is seen most clearly at Mass, when the Bishop or priest presides in the person of Christ the Head.

The priest . . . must continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the Lord's hands.

To understand the ministerial priesthood, we begin with the one priesthood of Christ. Christ presides when the Church gathers to pray; Christ, who receives life and love from the Father in the Holy Spirit and offers himself in response to the Father's love, incorporates worshippers into his receiving and responding through their celebration of the liturgy. The priest draws attention to Christ's action. As the sacramental presence of Christ the head of the body, the priest's ministry is one of the humility of Christ and the humility of God, made tangible in the priest's participation as the ordained presider in the liturgical celebration.

How do the priests in our parish show Christ's humility as they help us pray? How can I encourage them in this ministry?

The Eucharist and priestly celibacy
24. The ministerial priesthood, through ordination, calls for complete configuration to Christ. . . . Celibacy . . . is a profound identification with the heart of Christ the Bridegroom who gives his life for his Bride.

Once again, the Pope emphasizes the connection between the Father and the Incarnate Word, the connection between Christ and the Church. In the ordination rite we pray for priests' complete configuration to Christ. We need to keep praying for them as they exercise their ministry with joy and generosity. Can I name a few ways that I notice our parish priest's dedication and generosity? How do we encourage him?

The clergy shortage and the pastoral care of vocations
25. In the light of the connection between the sacrament of Holy Orders and the Eucharist, the Synod considered the difficult situation that has arisen in various Dioceses which face a shortage of priests. . . . The situation cannot be resolved by purely practical decisions. . . . The pastoral care of vocations needs to involve the entire Christian community in every area of its life.

The Pope expresses his determination, and that of the bishops at the Synod, to keep the quality of our priests high. Wellformed priests will attract young people to take up this ministry. Given the importance of Eucharist for the life of the Church, the entire Catholic community needs to be engaged in the fostering of priestly vocations. Are our priests conspicuously happy? Would you ever suggest that someone consider becoming a priest?

Gratitude and hope
26. We must never lose confidence that Christ continues to inspire men to leave everything behind and to dedicate themselves totally to celebrating the sacred mysteries, preaching the Gospel and ministering to the flock.

The Fidei Donum priests singled out in the exhortation for praise are on leave from their dioceses for pastoral work in developing parts of the world. How does our parish support the pastoral activity of the Church in some of the needier areas of the nation and world? How do we encourage and support priests serving in other parts of the world?

V. The Eucharist and matrimony
It is especially in marriage that people experience the truth that God is love. By God's grace, Christian marriage becomes a sacrament of that self-giving love is the nature and life of God. Christian marriage is a state of intense holiness, a high calling not given to all the baptized. Those united in marriage both express and receive divine love as they share their lives. Catholic theologies of marriage stress the characteristics of God's relationship with Christ and with the Church: holding nothing back, giving self absolutely and irrevocably. Both the unicity (involving one man and one woman) and the indissolubility of Christian marriage are based in this truth about God.

The Eucharist, a nuptial sacrament
27. The Eucharist inexhaustibly strengthens the indissoluble unity and love of every Christian marriage. By the power of the sacrament, the marriage bond is intrinsically linked to the eucharistic unity of Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church. The mutual consent that husband and wife exchange in Christ . . . also has a eucharistic dimension.

In the sacramental life, we celebrate God's commitment to us and to the world in Jesus Christ. Matrimony expresses that commitment in the lives of the people who live the sacrament in the community of the Church. Like the other sacraments, it is ordered toward the celebration of Eucharist and finds its deepest fulfillment in the light of that celebration.

Think of a few married couples whose lives bring you joy. Name a few of the ways that you experience God's self-giving love as you relate to them. How do you experience the quality of their commitment to each other?

The Eucharist and the unicity of marriage
28. In the light of this intrinsic relationship between marriage, the family and the Eucharist, we can turn to several pastoral problems. The indissoluble, exclusive and faithful bond uniting Christ and the Church . . . corresponds to the basic anthropological fact that man is meant to be definitively united to one woman and vice versa. With this in mind the Synod of Bishops addressed the question of pastoral practice regarding people who come to the Gospel from cultures in which polygamy is practiced.

God gives self in Jesus' receiving and responding, and continues that self-gift in the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Marriage represents that definitive self-gift through the dedication of the married persons to each other. Here is the Pope's theological explanation for the culturally difficult position of the official Church regarding polygamy or polyandry: however close the multiple spouses may be, their commitment will not clearly express the absolute commitment of God to Christ and the Church.

How do you give thanks for the ministry of married couples who bring God's faithfulness into your life?

The Eucharist and the indissolubility of marriage
29. If the Eucharist expresses the irrevocable nature of God's love in Christ for his Church, we can then understand why it implies, with regard to the sacrament of Matrimony, that indissolubility to which all true love necessarily aspires. [Pastoral attention, however, must be paid to] the painful situations experienced by some of the faithful who, having celebrated the sacrament of Matrimony, then divorced and remarried. This represents a complex and troubling pastoral problem. . . . Yet the divorced and remarried continue to belong to the Church, which accompanies them with special concern and encourages them to live as fully as possible the Christian life . . . .

This paragraph addresses the painful realities of irregular marriages while holding firmly that God's commitment to Christ and to the Church is lifelong and irrevocable. The Pope insists that both the Church's marriage law and her pastoral care is love for the truth. The truth we celebrate has its ramifications for our pastoral care of Christians whose marriages have fallen apart. We must, he tells us, be lavish in our care even as we emphasize the indissolubility of sacramental marriage.

Here Pope Benedict tells us not to forget what a high calling marriage is! Help engaged people prepare well! Help married people keep discovering the mystery of God in each other and in their love for their family! Help us consider marriage as one of God's greatest blessings, and reverence those who live it!

How does our parish celebrate the married people in our midst? Have we ever celebrated a wedding at the Sunday Mass? If we were engaged, what sort of preparation and catechesis for marriage would be helpful?

The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their journey
30. If it is true that the sacraments are part of the Church's pilgrimage through history towards the full manifestation of the victory of the risen Christ, it is also true that . . . they give us a real foretaste of the eschatological fulfillment for which every human being and all creation are destined. . . . The eucharistic banquet, by disclosing its powerful eschatological dimension, comes to the aid of our freedom as we continue our journey.

The celebration of the Eucharist puts us in touch with our destiny. We join our voices with the angels and saints; we join our prayers with the one prayer of Christ and his saints; we receive the bread of angels and drink the cup of salvation. Our celebration of the sacrament, by God's grace, with the help of the people with whom we pray, helps us express and accept the meaning of our lives in Christ and strengthens us for the entirety of the Christian life. Our Sunday celebration speaks to the whole of our lives and to our final destiny in God.

Can I name a way in which the Sunday Mass helps keep me faithful during the week? Do parts of the celebration help me look forward to the life of heaven?

The eschatological banquet
31. Jesus' coming responded to an expectation, present in the people of Israel, in the whole of humanity, and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift he objectively inaugurated the eschatological age.

He wished to transfer to the entire community that he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God.

Our reformed sacramental rites often speak of the assembly as Christ's gift to the Father, and praise God for the unity we experience as we act as the body of Christ. Our song and prayer, our listening and responding, our offering of self, and especially our Communion procession are described as ways to experience the communion of the saints and the unity of our prayer with the prayer of Christ, the angels, and the saints in heaven. The Pope calls us to see God at work in our celebration and to be grateful for the transformation taking place as we pray.

Can I name a few ways in which I am changing as we celebrate the Eucharist in our parish? Can I see any progress in patience, humility, reverence for my fellow parishioners? Will these changes make it easier for me to join in the heavenly banquet?

Prayer for the dead
32. The eucharistic celebration, in which we proclaim that Christ has died and risen, and will come again is a pledge of the future glory in which our bodies too will be glorified. Celebrating the memorial of our salvation strengthens our hope in the resurrection of the body and in the possibility of meeting once again, face to face, those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.

This consideration of eschatology ends with a reminder of the importance of prayer for the dead. We are all united in God's work of self-giving in Christ; we all need to keep praying for each other. Just as we assist each other in our liturgical celebration and in our works of charity, so we help each other through our prayer. As we rediscover the eschatological dimension inherent in our celebration of the Eucharist, God will give us strength for our journey and comfort us in the hope of glory.

At Mass we pray for our dead brothers and sisters in the faith and for all the dead. For whom am I accustomed to praying in the Mass? Do I hold faces, names, or images in my mind when we're praying for the dead?

The Eucharist and the Virgin Mary
33. From the relationship between the Eucharist and the individual sacraments, and from the eschatological significance of the sacred mysteries, the overall shape of the Christian life emerges, a life called at all times to be an act of spiritual worship, a self-offering pleasing to God. . . . In Mary most holy, we also see perfectly fulfilled the "sacramental" way that God comes down to meet his creatures and involves them in his saving work. . . . Mary . . is the model for each of us, called to receive the gift that Jesus makes of himself in the Eucharist.

Part I of this exhortation, "A Mystery to be Believed," concludes with the certainty of God's triumph over our sins. The self-giving of God has already found its perfect response in Jesus, whose Spirit abides in us. God has already brought this great work to its completion in Jesus' glorification, which according to ancient tradition includes the raising of the saints of the Old Testament. In Mary, we see God's work accomplished in the great disciple of the New Testament. Mary's response to God's call was made in the same Holy Spirit who abides in us, and who moves us to cooperation with God's plan. Mary's Assumption seals God's promise of faithfulness; God, who glorified Jesus, the perfect expression of his self-giving love, has brought Mary into the glory of the angels and saints. As the Word became Incarnate through Mary's body, so the Word, in the Holy Spirit is taking flesh in our lives. We see that enfleshment of Christ in our lives as we celebrate the Eucharist. The eucharistic liturgy is the indication of God's plan for us and the pledge that God will be faithful in accomplishing that great work. Mary's Assumption strengthens our faith and helps us remain faithful.

Has my image of Mary changed as I've considered this section on the celebration of the Eucharist? In what ways is she a helpful model? Are there "growing edges" where I could become more comfortable with her company?