Synod members offer local snapshots of Eucharist in church life

Published: 2005-10-11

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Amid theological and spiritual reflections, several members of the Synod of Bishops offered snapshots of the Eucharist in the life of their local churches. Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem told the synod Oct. 11 that in the Cenacle, the upper room where Jesus instituted the sacrament of Communion, the Eucharist is not reserved in a tabernacle and liturgies are not celebrated regularly. Patriarch Sabbah said Christians in the Holy Land, most of whom are Palestinians, need to realize that "adoration, the Mass and Communion are not exercises in piety," but a push for unity "in the parish and beyond the parish with the whole city or village and the whole country." The day before, Cuban Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Petit Vergel of Havana told the synod of the great love the Cuban people have for the Eucharist. "In the face of the difficulty and virtual impossibility of building new churches, we have so-called 'prayer houses' or 'mission houses' in outlying neighborhoods and small towns and villages where every week, or whenever possible, small groups of faithful -- no more than 40 people -- gather under the leadership of a committed layperson, sister or deacon," he said.

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