Eucharist's life-giving power extends beyond church walls, pope says

Published: 2006-06-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the Eucharist is the church's treasure, the focus of its liturgy and adoration, its life-giving and life-changing power extends beyond the walls of a church or chapel, Pope Benedict XVI said. "The Eucharist is the lord Jesus who gives himself for the life of the world," the pope said during his midday Angelus address June 18, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ in many countries. By transforming bread and wine into his body and blood, Jesus began the process of the "divinization of creation itself," demonstrating that his life, death and resurrection were meant to transform the whole world, the pope said.

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