MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH
The “Most Blessed Sacrament”, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used to refer to the Sacred Host after it has been consecrated in the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist. In the holy Gospel according to Saint John, we read that Jesus said to the people, “I myself am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he
shall live for ever. And now, what is this bread which I am to give? It is my flesh, given for the life of the world.” Then the Jews fell to disputing with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Whereupon Jesus said to them, “Believe me when I tell you this; you can have no life in yourselves, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood. The man who eats my flesh and drinks my blood enjoys eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, lives continually in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:51-57)
A “Sacrament” is an outward sign instituted by Jesus Christ to give grace. “The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.” [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1131]
Jesus Christ established seven Sacraments, which He handed on to His Church to administer: Baptism, Confirmation, the Most Holy Eucharist, Holy Matrimony, Sacred Orders, Penance, and Anointing of the Sick. Of these seven, the “Most Blessed Sacrament” is the Holy Eucharist, the “source and summit” of our faith.
“Sacraments are ‘powers that come forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new and everlasting covenant.” [CCC 1116]
“The Church celebrates the sacraments as a priestly community structured by the baptismal priesthood and the priesthood of ordained ministers.” [CCC 1132]
“The Holy Spirit prepares the faithful for the sacraments by the Word of God and the faith which welcomes that word in well-disposed hearts. Thus the sacraments strengthen faith and express it. [CCC 1133]
“The fruit of sacramental life is both personal and ecclesial. For every one of the faithful on the one hand, this fruit is life for God in Christ Jesus; for the Church, on the other, it is an increase in charity and in her mission of witness.” [CCC 1134]
