Holy Eucharist
Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity.
A sacrament of initiation.
SACRAMENT SCHEDULE
First Holy Communion: To receive First Holy Communion,u00a0please contact our director of Religious Education (click the button to the right to take you to our Faith Formation page). To receive Holy Communion as an adult, please contact OCIA (the contact information is also found on the Faith Formation page).
Communion Calls: Please contact the parish office for Communion to be brought to those who are homebound.
PARISH OFFICE CONTACT
SAINT JOSEPH
(845) 481-4560 and dial 9
Office Hours
Monday – Friday 8:30AM – 3:30PM
SAINT PETER
(845) 658-3117
Office Hours
8:30AM-12:30PM, Monday thru Wednesday
MORE ABOUT THE SACRAMENT
The Source and Summit of Our Faith
The doctrine of the Holy Eucharist consists of the Eucharistic sacrifice (the Mass), the sacrificial meal (Communion), and the sacrificial food (the Real Presence). In the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. The whole Christ is truly present – body, blood, soul, and divinity – under the appearance of bread and wine, the glorified Christ who rose from the dead. This is what the Church means when she speaks of the “Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Thus the mystery of the Eucharist summarizes the whole mystery of our redemption.
Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment because he loves us. By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we become united to the person of Christ through his humanity. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6:56). In being united to the humanity of Christ, we are at the same time united to his divinity. Our mortal and corruptible natures are transformed by being joined to the source of life.
The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols. When Christ said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” the bread and wine are transubstantiated. Though the bread and wine appear the same to our human faculties, they are actually the real body and blood of Jesus.
