Eucharist in the Catholic Church Eucharist in the Catholic Church The Eucharist in the Catholic Church is celebrated as "the source and summit" of the Christian life. The Eucharist is consecrated daily (except on Good Friday, when consecration takes place on Maundy Thursday, but is distributed during the Mass of the Presanctified) during the celebration of Mass, the eucharistic liturgy. The term "Eucharist" is also used for the bread and wine when transubstantiated (their substance having been changed), according to Catholic teaching, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic
Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist by the ordinance of Jesus. This view is known as Memoralism or the Zwinglian view, as it was taught by Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss Reformer. Many Christian churches holding to a doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (for example, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and Methodist) require ordained clergy, to officiate at the Eucharist, consecrating and distributing the elements to communicants. Some groups, mostly Protestants, require church leaders who may or may not be ordained (pastors, elders and deacons) to preside over the elements and distribute them. Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist The