Page 21 - Venture - Program Preview

Praise and Celebrate
changes that happen to you in your family life as you grow older. You can talk with your parents in ways that
you could not as a baby. Through more mature conversations with your parents, your bond with them deepens. Also, you can do work around the house that you could not do as a baby. Doing your part to make life better
for everyone in the home makes you
a more active member of your family. Finally, when you grow older, you start taking more responsibility for yourself, so your parents start giving you privileges that match your increasing maturity.
6. What Happens at the Eucharist?
Unlike Baptism and Confirmation,
the Eucharist is a sacrament that can be received again and again. In fact, the Church encourages Catholics
to receive Eucharist every time they attend Mass. At the very least, they are required to receive Eucharist at least once a year, during the Easter season. Receiving Communion once a year is
a Church rule. Attending Mass every Sunday is also a Church rule. When you seek strength from Christ’s Body and Blood during Sunday Mass, you become better at resisting serious sin during the rest of the week.
There is no other sacrament quite like the Eucharist. The Catechism calls it “the heart and the summit of the Church’s life.” The Eucharist is the
heart because it is at the center of the Church’s life. It is the summit because it is higher than any other form of worship or prayer.
Receiving the Body and Blood
of Christ in Holy Communion is necessary for a healthy spiritual life. You need Eucharist as much as you need food and drink for a healthy physical life. What’s more, your presence at Mass is something God wants of you more than any other kind of thanksgiving or praise. Yes, morning and evening prayers are important. Yes, meal prayers are important. But more important than any of these is your prayerful participation in the Eucharist.
The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving” in Greek. When you attend Mass, you show your thanks to God for every good thing you enjoy
in life. Neglecting to attend Sunday Mass is like taking all the good things your parents give you— food, shelter, clothes, education, health care, holiday gifts— and not once telling them “Thank you.”
We also celebrate the Eucharist because Christ told us to keep his memory alive in this way. Every Eucharist is a remembrance of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
The Sacrament of the Eucharist always includes: (1) the reading aloud of Scripture, (2) prayers of thanks
to God the Father for the gift of his Son Jesus, (3) the consecration of
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