lord's supper

Presents a collection of writings drawn from throughout the history of the Catholic Church that provide insights into the teachings and traditions associated with the Blessed Sacrament and the Liturgy.

Includes essays on Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Tertullain, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, the Didache, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, and the Didascalia.

Gathers together all the information lay people will need in order to function as eucharistic ministers.

Through architecture, music, books and vessels, Edward Foley traces the origins of Christian celebration from its Jewish roots to our own time. Lavishly illustrated with maps, photographs, drawings and music, this book recaptures the experience of ordinary Christian worshippers at eucharist and traces the development of the theology of liturgical celebration.

In his most provocative book yet, Pulitzer Prize?-winner Garry Wills asks the radical question: Why do we need priests? Author Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need priests at all? Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the priesthood, as it was at its outset? Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests? asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of Peter and Paul with notable success.