CCC 1322 - The holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism, and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation, participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.

CCC 1324 – The Eucharist is “the source and summit of Christian life” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”

When the hour had come for Jesus to leave the world and return to the Father, at his Last Supper he washed his disciples’ feet and gave them the commandment of love. To make them sharers of his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his Death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return. To this day it remains the centre of the Church’s life.

In this Sacrament the true Body of Christ and his true Blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins, sustains us on our pilgrimage to eternal life. (See CCC 1337, 1343, 1381 and 1419)