Blessed Sacrament

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The Blessed Sacrament is displayed in a procession at the 2005 Southeastern Eucharistic Congress.

The Blessed Sacrament is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, and also in Old Catholic and high church Anglican churches, to refer to the Eucharist gifts in the forms of Host and wine after they have been consecrated. Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and hence carry out Eucharistic adoration. This belief is based on Catholic interpretations of biblical scripture and tradition. The understanding is defined by numerous church councils including the Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent and is quoted in paragraph 1376 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which explains the meaning of Transubstantiation).

1 Catholic Church
2 Anglican Communion
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Catholic Church

The Blessed Sacrament may be received by Catholics who have undergone their First Holy Communion (ie., given by a priest or other Minister of the Eucharist to a Catholic and swallowed by the communicant) as part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist during Mass. The person receiving the Eucharist should be in a "state of grace," i.e., have no mortal sin on their conscience at the time of communion (Matt 5:23-24).

The Blessed Sacrament can also be exposed (displayed) on an altar in a Monstrance. Rites involving the exposure of the Blessed Sacrament include Benediction and Eucharistic adoration. According to Catholic theology, adoration of the host is not the adoration of bread, but of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, who is transubstantiated in it. Catholics believe Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God prefigured in the Old Testament passover. Unless the flesh of that passover sacrificial lamb was consumed, the members of the household would not be saved from death. As the Passover was the Old Covenant, so the Eucharist became the New Covenant. (Matt 26:26-28), (Mark 14:22-24), (Luke 22: 19-20), and (John 6:48-58)

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[edit] Anglican Communion

Reception of the Blessed Sacrament in the Anglican Communion varies by province. Formerly, Confirmation was universally required as a precondition to reception, but many provinces now allow all the baptised to partake.

Devotions to the Blessed Sacrament vary. In most churches, individuals will genuflect or bow in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, which is generally reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry on, behind, or near the altar. Its presence is indicated by a light suspended over or placed on top of the tabernacle or aumbry. The use of a monstrance is rare, perhaps in keeping with Article XXV of the Thirty-Nine Articles that "the Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them." Nonetheless, many parishes do have services of devotions to the Blessed Sacrament, in which the ciborium is removed from the tabernacle or aumbry and hymns, prayers, psalms, and sentences of devotion are sung and/or read. In some parishes, when the Blessed Sacrament is moved between tabernacles (say, from the High Altar to a chapel altar), sanctus bells are rung, and all who are present kneel.