Catholic Word of the Day: HOLY COMMUNION, 05-19-12

Featured Term (selected at random):

HOLY COMMUNION

The Eucharist is the sacrament that preserves the souls' union with God and fosters that union by making a person more holy especially in the practice of the supernatural virtue of charity. As a sacrament of the living, to obtain the graces intended, a person must be in the state of God's friendship when receiving, otherwise the reception becomes a sacrilege (I Corinthians 11:27-29).

The union of the communicant with Christ in the Eucharist is effective in the moral order. Though physically present in the communicant, Christ is not physically united with him. Only the consecrated species, since they alone can come in contact with material things, are physically united with the communicant.

Communion aims specifically at producing a likeness to Christ in the communicants. Their acts of mind and will, as a result of Communion, are to become more conformable to the acts of Christ's mind and will. Their body, too, is to become more like Christ's sacred body.

This is the primary purpose of the sacrament, a special union of the soul with Christ. What is special about this union is that the Eucharist is extraordinarily powerful in conferring actual graces that prompt a person to make acts of love for God and one's neighbor. Moreover, these graces inspire one to live for Christ habitually, even under great difficulties, as shown by the readiness to love the unlovable, and to promote loving community in spite of great natural diversity.

The secondary purpose of Communion is to assimilate the body of the communicant to the body of Christ in two ways: it curbs or mitigates all disordered passions, especially those against chastity, and it confers a new title to the final resurrection of the body in heavenly glory.

A final effect of Communion is to remove the personal guilt of venial sins, and the temporal punishment due to forgiven sins, whether venial or mortal.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper. (Would anyone like to help with this?)

Santa Maria Maggiore	Doctrine	Eugenic Sterilization
Via Dolorosa	Seven Dolors	Authority
Western Schism	Sick Call	Plain Chant
Palm Sunday	Malabar Rites	Nonjurors
Appellants	Diocesan Chancery	Chrism
Book of Common Prayer	Bridal Veil	Canonicals
Conflict of Rights and Duties	Celestines	Onan
Psychophysical Parallelism	Eucharisticum Mysterium	Keys
Soutane	Mensa	Gilead
Antistes	Material Co-operation	Suicide
Blood of St. Januarius	Sirach/Ecclesiasticus	Promulgation
Days of Abstinence	Holy Communion

Catholic Word of the Day Ping!

If you aren’t on this Catholic Word of the Day Ping list and would like to be, please send me a FReepmail.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.