The Institution of the Eucharist

The Institution of the Eucharist is the fifth and final of the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It commemorates the moment, at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening, when Christ took bread and wine, gave thanks, and gave them to his apostles as his Body and Blood. The narrative is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20) and in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, where Saint Paul preserves the formulary of the Eucharistic words "This is my body" and "This is my blood."

This mystery is celebrated annually in the Catholic liturgy at the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening, the inauguration of the Sacred Triduum, and on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) the Sunday after Trinity Sunday in Ordinary Time.

The mystery

The Last Supper was a Passover meal celebrated by Christ with the Twelve Apostles in an Upper Room in Jerusalem on the evening before the Passion. In the course of the meal, Christ took unleavened bread, blessed it, broke it, and distributed it to the apostles with the words "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and gave it to them with the words "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins."

The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence rests upon these words. The Catholic Church teaches that, at the words of consecration spoken by a validly ordained priest in the Mass, the bread and wine are changed in their substance into the Body and Blood of Christ; the appearances of bread and wine remain, but their inner reality is now Christ himself, body, blood, soul, and divinity. This change is called transubstantiation, and the doctrine was solemnly defined at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and at the Council of Trent in 1551 (Decree on the Most Holy Eucharist, Chapter 4).¹

The Last Supper was, at the same time, the institution of the Catholic priesthood. When Christ said to the apostles, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24), he conferred upon them the authority to do what he had just done, that is, to consecrate bread and wine into his Body and Blood. The Catholic doctrine of the apostolic priesthood, transmitted through the laying on of hands in episcopal ordination, traces back to this command at the Last Supper.

Meditation on Eucharistic devotion

The traditional spiritual fruit of the Institution of the Eucharist is Eucharistic devotion. The mystery places before the believer the gift of the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324). Every Catholic Mass makes present anew, on the altar, the one sacrifice of the Cross; the Eucharist consumed in Holy Communion is the same Body and Blood given on Calvary, now received as food for the journey of the redeemed.

The traditional Catholic prayers of Eucharistic devotion include the Anima Christi, prayed in thanksgiving after Holy Communion; the Tantum Ergo (the closing verses of the Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua, sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament); and the Adoro Te Devote, the Eucharistic hymn of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Eucharistic adoration before the reserved Blessed Sacrament is a Catholic devotion of the highest standing.

Praying the Institution of the Eucharist

To pray the fifth Luminous Mystery: announce "The fifth Luminous Mystery, the Institution of the Eucharist," pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys while meditating on the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and conclude with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer.

After the fifth Luminous Mystery, the rosary concludes with the Hail Holy Queen and the closing prayer of the Rosary. For the previous mystery, see the Transfiguration. For the catechetical article on the Eucharist itself, see What is the Eucharist?.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Council of Trent, Session XIII (October 11, 1551), Decree on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, especially Chapter 4 on transubstantiation. See also Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1373 to 1381. ↩