Eucharist

CATHOLIC SPIRITUALITY FOR ADULTS

by Robert Barron

For many Catholics today, the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ, and the Mass is merely a collectivity of like-minded individuals gathering to remember his life. But the truth of what is made present on the altar, and what the faithful dare to receive into their bodies and souls, is far more strange and beautiful. In this engaging theological treatise, Bishop Robert Barron offers a reintroduction to the ancient meaning and power of the Eucharist. Through a threefold analysis of the Eucharist as sacred meal, sacrifice, and Real Presence―distinct but tightly interwoven motifs grounded in Scripture―Bishop Barron draws readers into the profound truth flowing out of Jesus’ words at the Last “Take, eat; this is my body. . . . Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant.” We are not merely invited to remember Jesus or imitate his moral example; we are invited to the grace of communion―and ultimately, to the realm of God―by eating and drinking the very self that he offers in sacrifice.

Genres: Theology, Catholic, Religion, Nonfiction, Faith, Christianity, Spirituality

89 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 30, 2008

About the author

Bishop Robert Emmet Barron is an acclaimed author, speaker, and theologian. He is the former Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago and also is the founder of Word On Fire (www.WordOnFire.org).

Bishop Barron is the creator and host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking ten-part documentary series and study program about the Catholic faith. He is a passionate student of art, architecture, music and history, which he calls upon throughout his global travels in the making of the documentary.

Word On Fire programs are broadcast regularly on WGN America, Relevant Radio, CatholicTV, EWTN, the popular Word on Fire YouTube Channel, and the Word on Fire website, which offers daily blogs, articles, commentaries, and over ten years of weekly sermon podcasts. In 2010, Father Barron was the first priest to have a national show on a secular television network since the 1950s.

Fr. Barron received his Masters Degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC in 1982 and his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique in 1992. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1986 and has been a professor of systematic theology at the nation's largest Catholic seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary since 1992. He was visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2002 and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2007. He was also twice scholar in residence at the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican.

In addition, Fr. Barron lectures extensively in the United States and abroad. Cardinal Francis George calls Fr. Barron “one of the Church’s best messengers.

Fr. Barron was baptized at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago and grew up at St. John of the Cross parish in Western Springs, Illinois.
WordOnFire.org - Fr. Barron's website launched in 1999 and currently draws over 1 million visitors a year from every continent. Fr. Barron posts weekly video clips, commentaries and radio sermons and offers an audio archive of over 500 homilies. Podcasts of his sermons are widely used by tens of thousands of visitors each month.
TV - EWTN (The Eternal Word Television Network) and CatholicTV broadcasts Fr. Barron's DVDs to a worldwide audience of over 150 million people.

Radio - Since 1999, Fr. Barron's weekly Word on Fire program has been broadcast in Chicago (WGN) and throughout the country (Relevant Radio - 950 AM Chicago) to 28 million listeners in 17 states. Fr. Barron also is a regular commentator on the "Busted Halo Show" on the Sirius satellite radio network based in New York.

DVDs - Fr. Barron's DVDs are used as powerful faith formation tools in universities, schools, churches and homes around the country. The series includes Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues; Faith Clips; Conversion: Following the Call of Christ; and Untold Blessing: Three Paths to Holiness.

YouTube - With over 180 online video commentaries by Fr. Barron, over 1 million viewers worldwide have made him the most popular of any evangelist on YouTube. These frequent, high-quality productions include brief and lively theological reviews of contemporary culture, including movies such as No Country for Old Men, Apocalypto, and The Departed, a three-part critical review of Christopher Hitchen's book God is Not Great, The Discovery Channel's The Jesus Tomb, the HBO series "The Sopranos", "Rome" and more.

Missions - MISSION CHICAGO features evangelization lectures by Fr. Barron at the behest of Cardinal George. These special missions and presentations throughout the Archdiocese are centered in downtown Chicago and attract business, civic, and cultural leaders.
Books - His numerous books and essays serve as critical educational and inspirational tools for seminarians, priests, parishioners and young people worldwide. His published works are also central to the numerous retreats, workshop and talks that h

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was wonderful! I got it from my parish for a book discussion, but was unable to go to the sessions after the first one. I had already seen the movie, Babette's feast, and I loved the way Fr. Barron used the movie to explain that there can be no communion without sacrifice. The later discussion of the Eucharist as the real presence was fascinating. I had never heard of Berengarius and some of the subtle explanations were perhaps too deep for me, but this would be worth re-reading. It is hard to understand that the bread & wine still look like bread & wine after the transubstantiation but actually are not bread & wine, but the body & blood of Christ. This book explains it better than most, at least for me. If I can have Christ living within me, then He can also be living within bread & wine, right? Why not?
I love the line, "Even in the silence of the tabernacle, a divine word is being spoken."
A lot of food for thought in this slim book!

[Siobhain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a fabulous book! If one has watched Bishop Barron on any of his videos - I have watched the Catholicism series - while reading this book, he will hear Bishop Barron's voice and be able to imagine the pageantry and beauty of all that is shared and explained about the celebration of the Eucharist. I am so glad this was suggested reading for the course Lectio: Eucharist with Dr. Brant Pitre. All of the books recommended in that course have been excellent, but some are more academic. Eucharist by Bishop Barron is short, accessible, and inspirational, and I finally understand the connection between the movie Babette's Feast and the celebration of the Eucharist. I once watched the movie after hearing of this connection, but I couldn't see it on my own. Robert Barron beautifully fleshes out this connection. Though all of the elements of the course have been magnificent in awakening my appreciation of Holy Mass, this fantastic volume would have been hugely helpful had I only read it. I highly recommend it for anyone who desires to increase their understanding and appreciation of the Holy Mass. Thank you, Bishop Barron!

[Thomass Bigt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good! Bishop Barron is able to eloquently demystify alot of, not so much what the Eucharist is, but who it is.

Although all the previous chapters were definitely good to read, they build upon eachother which brings us to the culminating point of the final section of the final chapter which is no shorter than a litterary masterpiece.

This book should be read by anyone doubting the reverence of the Eucharist as the true Body of Christ. It makes it much more digestible once you actually understand.

I would definitely recommend to read this short but profound book.

[Roderick Vonhogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and exhaustive explanation of the Catholic theology of the Eucharist and its origins. Barron's background as a teacher shows in the way in which he explains this theology in an accessible way without sacrificing precision.

[David Szatkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barron's writing as always is penetrating and topical. The book links concepts of sacrifice, meal, and sacrament. Barron shows how and why a belief in the Real Presence is both based in Scripture and tradition. Barron shows how both the philosophy of the middle ages and the philosophy of modern times help to unpack the reality of the gift of the Eucharist to the Church. This is a good book for any believer.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book overflows with wonderful imagery and stories connected to the most salient characteristics of the Eucharist: nourishment, communion, and sacrifice. The author is able to seamlessly cull from diverse sources, starting with scenes or excerpts from Dinesen and Tolkien, and completing the discourse and tapestry that he has woven with, of course, scripture. It is as educational and enlightening as it is inspiring.

[Michael Vidrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although there were parts that were inspiring and even insightful, I was frequently bored and also frustrated at Barron’s tendency to compromised truth for the sake of accessibility. That is was particularly bad and potentially very damaging when Barron went to lengths to show his readers that the Eucharist is not a symbol (which is both false and undermines all of sacramental theology). What’s even worse is that to support this claim he selectively cites several patristics who, if Barron’s readers investigated a little bit further (which is something Barron should want them to do) they would see that these same patristics explicitly recognize the Eucharist to have symbolic value. I don’t understand why he chooses to feed into the idea that symbolic signification is in competition with sacramental efficacy or real presence; it is especially irresponsible given that the entire history of sacramental theology that favors the language of “symbolism” is something that is easily accessible to his entire audience.

[Bill Warden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an intense review of what the Eucharist really means. It goes into some depth as to the arguments and discussions whether the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ, or if it is just a representation (as some other religions believe).

This was a terrific read and helped to deepen my beliefs in my faith.

[Danielle Denbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddy-read with Granite. I disagree with the eucharist but enjoyed a lot of themes and aspects of the book and the way it was written. Better than expected.

[Bernadette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bishop Barron knocks it out of the park with this accessible yet elevated discourse on the Eucharist, combining Biblical, theological, philosophical and cultural insights.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and mystical exploration of creation, words, transmutation, and ritual. Good read for those curious in the mysteries surrounding the rite of the Eucharist.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book which is easy to read.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read on understanding the Eucharist. I highly recommend it to anyone who struggles with the theology of the Eucharist. It's a quick read or listen. It was four hours on Scribd.

[benjamin uhlenkott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book 17 years ago, or more. I forgot why I didn’t like the first half - 2/3 of the book. I now remember, it’s the way Bishop Barron presents the info and he does so methodically with lots of detail, which means it’ll be a slow grind for the average reader. Good info, but it’ll take time. Unfortunately, some may find it too laborious or detailed and give up. Don’t!

The last third of the book is fantastic and makes it a great book to refer back to for some very salient points about the Catholic understanding of the Real Presence by pointing out theology the good Bishop makes very accessible.

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fr. Barron is an incredible writer, and the ease with which he explains the tradition, significance and philosophy behind the Eucharist and transubstantiation is beautifully simplistic while still being knowledgeable and authoritative. A quick read that really bolstered my understanding of the primary Catholic sacrament.

[Brett Salkeld]

The best introductory work on the topic that I have yet seen. Father Barron is a theologian of merit and a gifted communicator. His work in this book, as elsewhere, is orthodox, measured and open. This is a rare combination.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through this one. There’s a lot of goodness in it, but it rambles a lot. I thought it would have been good if what was there was broken up into more shorter chapters. Unfortunately, lots of it went over my head.

[Photovy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A world gone wrong can be corrected only through sacrifice, that is to say, through an act of love which takes on evil and reworks it from within."

"The grace of communion was so real because the sacrifice of self was so real."

Connection of the Last Supper to Isaiah's supper of choice meat and wine. (Is 25)

It is never enough simply to eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus: one must must become a bearer of the power that one has received. The meal always conduces to the mission.

{On the unitive power of the Eucharist]} Just as the stomach could not possibly remain indifferent to a cancer growing in an adjacent organ, so one member of the body of Christ could not possibly ignore the spiritual plight or physical need of another.

Just as Noah released the life that he had preserved on the ark, so the priest sends the community out as the seed of new life.

Like Abraham. The covenant, union between God and humanity, will always be accompanied by a willingness to sacrifice.

We are not repeating Christ's sacrifice on our own terms and through our own initiative; rather we are re-presenting it, tapping into its power.

People act as the common priesthood by " uniting their personal sacrifices and sufferings with the great sacrifice of Christ."

Only in the measure that we are transformed through sacrifice, only when our sin and suffering have been dealt with, can we sit down in the fellowship of the sacred banquet. And thus we have come full circle. The eucharistic liturgy is the sacred meal because it is a sacrificial offering. In the blood of Jesus, the bliss of Eden is restored, and God and human beings are once again friends.

What does the transformation of receiving the Eucharist practically entail? One's whole life-body, psyche, emotions, spirit - becomes ordered to the eternal dimension, to the realm of God. The Christified person knows that his life is not finally about him but about God; the Eucharistized person understands that her treasure is to be found above and not below. Wealth, pleasure, power, honor, success, titles, degrees, even friendships and family connections are all relativized as the high adventure of life with God opens up.

[Cj Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this book is about the sacrament of the Eucharist. Bishop Barron outlines three key themes surrounding the Eucharist to help us understand its significance and how it brings God to us. The three themes are Meal, Sacrifice and the Real Presence of God.

The first theme, Meal, speaks to the necessity of food and drink. Just as our physical bodies require food to survive, our souls(spiritual bodies) require God. Meals are also elevated and made Holy in celebratory feasts to share, unite and remember.

The second theme, Sacrifice, speaks of the costs required to bring unity in a fallen world.

The last theme is the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist. Bishop Barron explains how Christians should understand what is meant when Jesus says that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood, how the bread and wine are transubstantiated in the Holy Sacrifice and how this sacrament is not merely a symbol, but Christ's Real Presence.

Like many of Bishop Barron's works, this book is precise in its theological arguments. The idea of transubstantiation is particularly interesting because it opens the door to understanding reality not from a primarily materialistic view but one of telos and meaning. "Seeing correctly and living correctly are correlated; vision and discipleship are mutually implicative" (pp. 109)

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not Catholic, but I've been exploring its theology, as well as church history, for about a year. Turns out, after 2000 years they got a few things right! I digress...

I didn't learn many new things from Eucharist by Bishop Robert Barron. Barron chose to focus on accessibility, rather than being too heady. He covered all his bases – he went over pretty much every topic, all the while using stories and history to engage the reader. He certainly kept my attention.

That said, for me this book was a little forgettable. Reading it felt worshipful – Barron writes with a revenant tone. But I've read a lot of similar books, and I don't see myself going back to this one. It's a little too heady for really casual Catholics, but too elementary for especially studious ones. Regardless, I'm glad I read it and I feel more reverent about the Eucharist than before. And isn't that the point?

[Matt Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've digested enough material from Bishop Barron now to be fairly familiar with the points he tends to make about the Eucharist. Even with that background, this treatise is still worth the read.
The now-Bishop of Winona-Rochester is writing for an audience that, at some level, accepts the fundamental claim of Christianity as true. That claim, that Jesus is the Son of God who died and rose from the dead, is fundamental to understand these claims around the Eucharist.
With that foundation in place, one can grasp the brilliance here with the structure of Bishop Barron's tripartite theological argument. He draws from the Christian tradition to convince the reader that the Eucharist isn't a mere symbol and the profoundness of that implication.
A worthy read for the year of Eucharistic Revival within the Catholic Church.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Bishop Barron packs so much history, information, and pure faith into this slim volume. It took my breath away, made want to shout from the rooftops, “Read this book,” and give a copy to everyone I know. People ask why I’m a Catholic. This book explains why.

Bishop Barron thoroughly covers Jesus’s institution of the Eucharist, its place in the history of Christianity, and the ongoing debate within the Roman Catholic Church about the nature of the Sacrament. Yet he explains it so clearly that everything falls into place. He also provides an extensive bibliography of resources for anyone desiring to delve more deeply into any of the facets of the discussion. This book has a permanent place in my library.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book on the Eucharist. Bishop Barron spends much of the book examining the Eucharist as both a sacred meal and a sacrifice. He notes that prior to the Second Vatican Council, there was a strong emphasis on sacrifice, but since, the pendulum has shifted in the opposite direction toward the communal meal. He says the two--sacrifice and sacred, communal meal--are inseparable. He concludes the book with a section rejecting the notion that the Eucharist is merely a symbol, beginning the chapter with the Flannery O'Connor quote, "If it's just a symbol, then to hell with it." Bishop Barron's work is full of references to the Old and New Testaments as well as the Church Fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas. Despite its short length, it is an incredibly deep and rich book.

[Peggy Haslar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leading with beauty, Bishop Robert Barron engages our senses by first offering a literary reflection on Isak Dinesen's rich short story "Babette's Feast." But this small, richly documented book is headed to the intensely strange reality of Christ made present in the Catholic Mass. Through a biblical exposition of the Eucharist as sacred meal and sacrifice and a historical account of the doctrine of the Real Presence throughout the centuries of the Church, we're led finally to pure, gratuitous invitation: “Take, eat; this is my body. . . . Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant.” Far more than mere symbol, the Eucharist is a continual receiving of the Crucified and Risen Christ, an opportunity to commune deeply with Him and to become his presence in the world.

[Lisa Machado · Rating 5 out of 5]

At only 110 pages, this book gives a theological analysis of why The Eucharist is so precious to Catholics and is not “just a symbol.” The book is for all who seek historical, scriptural and spiritual meaning behind what is called The Catholic Mass.

But don’t let “theology” prevent you from reading as Bishop Barron talks about The Last Supper, Scripture and how the Eucharist is a sacrifice, a meal and enables us to be in full communion with the Living God. He does is in a way of a humble teacher who truly wants students to learn.

There is reason with this faith, and this book provides it for all who seek intellectual reasoning.

[Rebekah Hand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a groupie. Decided to read the book in accompaniment to participation in the group study developed in video format on this subject by bishop Barron. I had to miss three of the five sessions, so it's a good thing I did! This is an excellent and approachable overview of the multifaceted mystery of the Eucharist. Written in a way that makes the scriptural, theological and philosophical currents of the Eucharistic thought accessible to us non-experts/thinkers. Edifying and enlightening!

[Mark Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful and relatively accessible

Extremely helpful short work on the importance of the eucharist. Barron neatly ties together Scripture, Church Fathers, and cultural references to present how the real presence of Christ is utterly essential to the work of the church, from the beginning right up to today.

[Nikki Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual Bishop Barron makes sense of a theology. For me his summing up of the Road to Emmaus in the epilogue was an epiphany to not only this piece of sacred scripture but to the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist. I urge everyone to read this to bring you closer to our Lord.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took ne a very long time to thoroughly read and treasure this book. It is difficult and many may not be able to follow it. I did not find it easy and that's why it took so long. I plan to re-read it soon.

[Pete Kieffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE EUCHARIST EXPLAINED

This is a great little book for understanding the Eucharist. Using the ideas of a Meal, Sacrifice, and the Real Presence, Barron unpacks the meaning of the Eucharist. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand this Sacrament more deeply.