In our study of the Baltimore Catechism No. 2, we continue our discussion of the sacraments with the one that most Catholics receive most often: the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Unlike most Protestant churches, the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is truly present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. What appears to be bread and wine are, after the consecration by the priest at Mass, the Body and Blood of Christ. The form or appearances of the bread and wine remain, but the substance has been changed, which is why this is called transubstantiation.
Every sacrament was instituted by Christ, and the Eucharist is no exception. Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, when He declared that the bread was His Body and the wine was His Blood. He granted the power to His apostles to perform the sacrament when He told them to "Do this in remembrance of me."
Because of apostolic succession, priests today continue the ministry of Christ, including the consecration of the Eucharist at Mass. They do not turn the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ through their own power; rather Christ, working through them, does.
Lesson Twenty-Second from the Confirmation Catechism has 13 questions. Note that the lesson begins with Question 238, continuing with the numbering from Lesson Twenty-First.
The parallel lesson this week in the First Communion Catechism is Lesson Eighteenth. It includes 4 questions drawn from Lesson Twenty-Second of the Confirmation Catechism.
Check out this week's lesson, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or ask them in the Catholicism Forum!
Previous Lessons in Sunday School:- Welcome to Sunday School!
- On God and His Perfections
- On the Unity and Trinity of God
- On Creation
- On Our First Parents and the Fall
- On Sin and Its Kinds
- On the Incarnation and Redemption
- On Our Lord's Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
- On the Holy Ghost and His Descent Upon the Apostles
- On the Effects of the Redemption
- On the Church
- On the Attributes and Marks of the Church
- On the Sacraments in General
- On Baptism
- On Confirmation
- On the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost
- On the Sacrament of Penance
- On Contrition
- On Confession
- On the Manner of Making a Good Confession
- On Indulgences