This observance originated in the Belgian city of Liège in the 13th century. Very soon after, in 1264, Pope Urban IV decreed that the feast be celebrated by the whole Western Church. From then until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the popular focus of the feast was on the presence of Christ in the consecrated bread, the Blessed Sacrament. Nowadays the feast invites us to enter into the whole mystery of Jesus’ self-gift to us in the eucharistic meal. We are reminded that the eucharist is first and foremost an action that engages us heart and soul. Our communion in the Body and Blood of Christ makes the Church the Body of Christ. Like Jesus we break the bread and pour out the wine of our lives for the sake of the world.
St. Augustine said, ‘become what you receive.’ When we celebrate the Eucharist with each other and receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we are called to be the Body of Christ, the Church today. At the end of every celebration of the Eucharist we are sent out with this great prayer of mission, let us go now to love and serve the Lord. We share in the gift of Jesus’ Body and Blood, and we are also asked to share this with others when we leave the church building.
Michael Moore OMI
“Going to communion” is not a private “receiving” but a sharing, an eating together of the one Bread and the shared drinking of the one Cup. This one Bread and one Cup represent Jesus in his Risen Body; it includes not only Jesus but the whole community present. We recognise in the sharing not just the individual Jesus coming to me but Jesus in his Body, of which we are all part.