Eucharist

The Lord's Supper: its practice and meaning.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

Didache 10.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving after the meal begins.
Didache 10.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's name, knowledge, faith, and immortality.
Didache 10.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for daily food and for spiritual food and eternal life.
Didache 10.7Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Prophets may give thanks freely.
Didache 14.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · On the Lord's day, gather to break bread and give thanks after confessing your sins.
Didache 14.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Be reconciled before joining the gathering.
Didache 14.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Malachi's prophecy of a pure sacrifice among the nations.
Didache 9.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Instructions for the Eucharist begin.
Didache 9.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the cup.
Didache 9.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the bread.
Didache 9.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer that the church be gathered into one, like grain into bread.
Didache 9.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Only the baptized may share in the Eucharist.
1 Clement 44.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Deposing blameless bishops is a serious sin.
To the Ephesians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Frequent gatherings for the Eucharist defeat the powers of Satan.
To the Ephesians 20.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · In the one Eucharistic bread, the “medicine of immortality,” the united church shares Christ's life.
To the Ephesians 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Whoever stays away from the church's gathering lacks the bread of God.
To the Philadelphians 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · One Eucharist, one flesh and cup of Christ, one altar, one bishop.
To the Romans 7.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius longs for the bread of God, Christ's flesh, and the drink of his blood.
To the Smyrnaeans 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The docetists avoid the Eucharist because they deny it is Christ's flesh.
To the Smyrnaeans 8.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · A valid Eucharist is one held under the bishop or his appointee.
To the Smyrnaeans 8.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Where the bishop is, there the people should be, as the catholic church is where Christ is.
First Apology 65Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
First Apology 66Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The Eucharist is for the baptized only; it is not common bread and drink, but the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, as the Gospels record.
First Apology 67Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 116.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians, cleansed through Christ's name, are the true high-priestly race offering pure sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Eucharist of bread and cup is the pleasing sacrifice of Malachi.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers and thanksgivings from the worthy are the only perfect sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Christian thanksgiving over bread and cup remembers Christ's passion; at the resurrection God will vindicate Christians.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers in Jesus' name are offered among every people on earth.
Dialogue with Trypho 28.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Mal 1:10–12: a pure sacrifice among the nations.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The flour offering for cleansed lepers prefigured the eucharistic bread, given in remembrance of Christ's passion.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Mal 1:10–12.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Malachi's pure sacrifice in every place is the Eucharist of the Gentile church.
Dialogue with Trypho 70.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isaiah's “bread” and “water” foretell the Eucharist.
The Instructor 1.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk, the Word, is the believer's food from beginning to end; the solid food Paul withheld may mean the face-to-face vision in the age to come.
The Instructor 1.6.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk may be the preaching and solid food faith; Christ's words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood speak symbolically of faith and hope, which sustain the church.
The Instructor 1.6.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk, prepared by God for the newborn like the manna for Israel, pictures the spiritual food of the Word, whom the Father rained down to nourish the faithful.
The Instructor 1.6.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The church is the one virgin mother who nurses her children with the Word; Christ bore her in the travail of his flesh and swaddled her in his blood, and is everything to his little ones.
The Instructor 1.6.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ gives his flesh and blood as food; Clement explains flesh as the Spirit and blood as the Word, and Christ, who shed his blood for us, as the Father's milk.
The Instructor 1.6.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ's food was doing the Father's will; ours is Christ himself, the bread from heaven, whose flesh, like grain and baked bread, rises and gladdens the church.
The Instructor 1.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word is called food, flesh, bread, blood, wine, and milk; Christ's flesh, the heavenly bread, nourishes to incorruption, and Abel's pleading blood prefigures his.
The Instructor 2.2.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Water is the natural drink, as the rock in the desert shows; wine is prescribed only as medicine. The great cluster of grapes is Christ, crushed for us, whose blood is both fleshly, redeeming us, and spiritual, anointing us.
The Instructor 2.2.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · To drink Christ's blood is to share his incorruption: the mingling of the cup and the Word is called the Eucharist, which sanctifies body and soul. The young should for the most part avoid wine, which inflames desire.
The Instructor 2.2.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Paul forbids drunkenness; Christ changed water into wine but did not permit drunkenness; wine is a symbol of his blood; drink only to meet need, keeping the soul dry and clear.
The Instructor 2.2.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Warlike peoples glory in drunkenness, but the peaceful Christian drinks soberly, as the Lord did: he drank wine, blessed the cup as his blood, and taught self-control at meals.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Son is the heavenly bread and spiritual food that gives life through eating and knowledge.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those who ate manna died, but those who eat the true bread will not die.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Son is the living bread given by the Father.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “The bread I will give is my flesh” means either what nourishes the flesh in the Eucharist, or, better, his body the church.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The heavenly bread is also the blessed assembly of the elect, who share one substance and one destiny.
Excerpts from Theodotus 82.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The bread and the oil are sanctified by God's name: outwardly unchanged, they are changed in power into spiritual power.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 23.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Christ gives himself as bread and the daily drink of immortality, and has paid the death owed for our sins.
Miscellanies 1.1.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Writer and reader must each examine themselves, as each communicant takes his own portion of the Eucharist after self-examination, as Paul teaches.
Miscellanies 1.10.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ spoke and gave thanks before breaking bread, so that we might eat “rationally”; good speech and good deeds belong together, and each person should serve by his own gift.
Miscellanies 1.19.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Proverbs' stolen bread and water are the heretics' Eucharists, some using only water, contrary to the church's rule; their baptism is “strange water” that sweeps people back into the sea of paganism.
Miscellanies 3.2.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement reports that the Carpocratians' common meals end in promiscuity in the dark; he says Carpocrates misread Plato, who meant women are open to suitors before marriage but not after.
Miscellanies 4.25.161Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Rebecca, “virgin” said twice, signifies purity of body and soul, the glory of God; righteousness is peace; Christ is king of Salem, “peace,” foreshadowed by Melchizedek, who gave bread and wine as a type of the Eucharist.
On Idolatry 7Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · It is scandalous that idol-makers come to church, lift their hands in prayer, touch the Lord's body, and are even admitted to church office.
Octavius 9.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Caecilius describes the rumoured Christian banquet that ends in the lamp being knocked over.
On Prayer 19Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · On fast days (“stations”) Christians should still attend the Eucharist and may receive the Lord's body and keep it to take later, without breaking their fast.
On Prayer 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The petition for daily bread is chiefly a prayer for Christ, the bread of life, and union with his body; taken literally it asks only for what is needed today.
Prescription against Heretics 36Tertullian · ca. 203 · Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
Prescription against Heretics 40Tertullian · ca. 203 · The devil imitates Christian sacraments in pagan mysteries, as in Mithraism, and likewise twists Scripture into heresy, which is a kind of idolatry.
Against Marcion 1.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Even tiny creatures show the Creator's skill; Marcion's own Christ loved the Creator's man and uses the Creator's water, oil, milk, honey, and bread in his sacraments, and the Marcionites themselves live on the Creator's world.
Against Marcion 3.19Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Further prophecies of the cross: the Lord reigning from the tree, government on his shoulder, wood cast into his bread, pierced hands and feet, and Isaiah's words on his death, burial, and resurrection.
Against Marcion 3.22Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The apostles' mission, their break with the synagogue, their persecution, the sign of the cross on believers' foreheads, and the church's pure sacrifice of praise were all foretold by the Creator's prophets.
Against Marcion 4.40Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ chose the Passover, was betrayed and sold as the prophets foretold, and at the Last Supper called the bread his body and the cup his blood, which shows that he had a real body of flesh and blood.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.39.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus made the eucharistic cup turn purple or red to make people think grace had come upon it.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.39.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus explains the trick: Marcus secretly added a dye and talked until it dissolved.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.40.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus had a woman give thanks over a small cup and then poured it back and forth into a larger one.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.40.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · With an invocation of Grace, Marcus made the small cup seem to fill and overflow the larger one.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Under Callistus a second baptism was introduced, and his community, which admitted all to communion, took the name Callistians.
On Prayer 27.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ's flesh, the Word made flesh, is true food for the mature; when we eat and drink him, he dwells in us and we behold his glory.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 40Origen · 235 · Denial sets a table for demons and cuts one off from the Lord's table and cup; whoever denies the Son loses the Father, but whoever confesses has him.
Against Celsus 8.22Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do keep the Lord's day, Preparation days, Easter, and Pentecost, but for the perfect every day is the Lord's day, a preparation, a passing-over to God, and a Pentecost of prayer and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 8.24Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says that eating sacrificial meat is harmless or that demons belong to God and should be honoured; Origen answers from 1 Corinthians that eating idol offerings harms weaker brothers and that one cannot share both the Lord's table and the table of demons.
Against Celsus 8.33Origen · ca. 248 · Christians live and use God's gifts with thanksgiving to the Creator, not to demons, whose rule extends only over those who submit to wickedness; they eat the eucharistic bread, which through prayer becomes a holy body that sanctifies.
Against Celsus 8.57Origen · ca. 248 · Christians show proper gratitude not to demons but to God, whose gifts fill them, and their eucharistic bread is a symbol of that thanksgiving; they honour but do not worship the angels who oversee nature.
On the Lord's Prayer 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our daily bread' is Christ in the Eucharist, received daily; we pray not to be cut off from it by grave sin.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
On the Lord's Prayer 31Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · In prayer the heart must be fixed on God alone, as the liturgy's 'Lift up your hearts' reminds us.
On the Lord's Prayer 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer should be quiet and modest, in private and in church, since God sees the heart and is everywhere.
On the Lapsed 15Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian attacks those who readmit the lapsed to communion without penance, a false peace that lets them receive the Lord's body with hands still defiled by idol sacrifice.
On the Lapsed 16Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Easy readmission of the lapsed before penance and reconciliation is not peace but a new persecution by the devil, which robs them of true repentance; only the Lord can show mercy.
On the Lapsed 2Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian welcomes the confessors who resisted sacrifice, and praises equally those who stood firm by refusing to sacrifice even if they were not arrested.
On the Lapsed 22Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Some of the lapsed, unrepentant and proud, rage against the clergy for refusing them the Eucharist, though these are the very ones praying for their forgiveness.
On the Lapsed 25Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian recounts how a little girl, fed idol-offered bread and wine by a nurse without her parents' knowledge, refused and vomited the eucharistic cup.
On the Lapsed 26Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Other lapsed Christians who received the Eucharist secretly were struck down: a woman choked, another was stopped by fire from her box holding the sacrament, and a man found it turned to ashes.
On the Lapsed 9Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Some lapsed Christians drew others into sacrificing, even their baptized infants, who will accuse their parents at the judgment.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 13Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God accepts neither prayer nor sacrifice from those at odds with their brothers, so schismatics cannot expect Christ's presence.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 17Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Believers must shun schismatics, who set up a rival altar and profane the Lord's sacrifice.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 8Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · There is one flock and one shepherd; like Rahab's house and the Passover lamb eaten in one house, salvation is found only within the one church.