eucharist

[Lat. eucharistia, from Greek eucharistia =a giving of thanks, the Eucharist: eu well, and charizomai to show favor; char is= favor; chairō =to rejoice.] Scripture and Ecclesiology: *1. The act of giving thanks; thanksgiving. "Some receive the sacrament as a means to procure great graces and ble ings, others as an eucharist and an office of thanksgiving for what they have received." Taylor . 2. The Holy Communion, specially in one aspect of it, viz., the giving of thanks. On the night of the Savior's betrayal, while He and the disciples were reclining at table eating the pa over, "Jesus took bread and ble ed it"" "and He took the cup and gave thanks." (Matt. xxvi. 26, 27; cf. also Mark xiv. 22, 23.) In Luke xxii. 19, and 1 Cor. x. 11, with which cf. 1 Cor. xi. 24, it is related that" He took the bread and gave thanks"-"gave thanks" being evidently equivalent to "ble ed it" in the first two gospels, though the Greek words are different: (having) ble ed it being eulogēsas , and having given thanks being eucharistēsas . Evidently the giving of thanks at the first communion was closely analogous to what is sometimes termed Grace before meat. It partly implied an acknowledgment of God's goodne in providing food, at the time represented by bread and wine, for the sustenance of man's bodily nece ities, but as this was no ordinary feast, but one in which every act was symbolical, it chiefly denoted thanksgiving for the benefits derived from the approaching death of Christ, which the bread and wine so clearly prefigured. pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, pot, eucharistic