The Church of the Holy Eucharist a new encyclical. (News in Brief: Vatican).

Vatican -- What's the relationship between the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Church? The question is almost impertinent because the relationship is so intimate and complete that the Church without the Eucharist is simply unthinkable. Pope John Paul sums it up in the first sentence of his 14th encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia: "The Church draws her life from the Eucharist."

The Encyclical was signed by. the Pope during the Mass of the Last Supper, April 17, 2003.

The following is a summary.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice, "the source and summit of the Christian life," contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Jesus Christ, who offers himself to the Father for the redemption of the world. In celebrating this "mystery of faith," the Church makes the Paschal Triduum become "contemporaneous" with men and women in every age.

* The first chapter, The Mystery of Faith, explains the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist which, through the ministry of the priest, makes sacramentally present at each Mass the body "given up" and the blood "poured out" by Christ for the world's salvation. The celebration of the Eucharist is not a repetition of Christ's Passover, or its multiplication in time and in space; it is the one sacrifice of the Cross, which is represented until the end of time. It is, in the Words of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, "a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death."

As a pledge of the future Kingdom, the Eucharist also reminds believers of their responsibility for the present earth, in which the weak, the most powerless and the poorest await help from those who, by their solidarity, can give them reason for hope.

* The Eucharist builds the Church is the title of the second chapter. When the faithful approach the sacred banquet, not only do they receive Christ, but they in turn are received by Him. The consecrated Bread and Wine are the force which generates the Church's unity. The Church is united to her Lord who, veiled by the Eucharistic species, dwells within her and builds her up. She worships Him not only at Holy Mass itself, but at all other times, cherishing Him as her most precious "treasure."

* The third chapter is a reflection on The apostolicity of the Eucharist and of the Church. Just as the full reality of the Church does not exist without apostolic succession, so there is no true Eucharist without the bishop. The priest who celebrates the Eucharist acts in the person of Christ the Head; he does not possess the Eucharist as its master, but is its servant for the benefit of the community of the saved. It follows that the Christian community does not "possess" the Eucharist, but receives it as a gift.

* These reflections are developed in the fourth chapter, The Eucharist and ecciesial communion. The Church, as the minister of Christ's body and blood for the salvation of the world, abides by all that Christ himself established. Faithful to the teaching of the Apostles, united in the disciplines of the sacraments, she must also manifest in a visible manner her invisible unity.

The Eucharist cannot be "used" as a means of communion; rather it presupposes communion as already existing and strengthens it. In this context emphasis needs to be given to the commitment to ecumenism which must mark all the Lord's followers: the Eucharist creates communion and builds communion, when it is celebrated truthfully. It cannot be subject to the whim of individual or of particular communities.

* The dignity of the Eucharistic celebration is the subject of the fifth chapter. The celebration of the Mass is marked by outward signs aimed at emphasizing the joy which assembles the community around the incomparable gift of the Eucharist. Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature and, more generally, every form of art demonstrate how the Church, down the centuries, has feared no extravagance in her witness of the love which united her to her divine Spouse. A recovery of the sense of beauty is also needed in today's celebrations.

* The sixth chapter, At the school of Mary, 'woman of the Eucharist,' is a timely and original reflection on the surprising analogy between the Mother of God, who by bearing the body of Jesus in her womb became the first "tabernacle," and the Church who in her heart preserves and offers to the world Christ's body and blood. The Eucharist is given to believers so that their life may become a continuous Magnificat in honour of the Most Holy Trinity.