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First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. [1] It is most common in many parts of the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion (other ecclesiastical provinces of these denominations administer a congregant's First Communion ...
The term Mass refers to the act by which the sacrament of the Eucharist comes into being, while the term Holy Communion refers to the act by which the Eucharist is received. [2] Blessed Sacrament is a devotional term used in the Catholic Church to refer to the Eucharistic species (consecrated sacramental bread and wine). [4]
Others, such as the Catholic Church, do not formally use this term for the rite, but instead mean by it the act of partaking of the consecrated elements; [31] they speak of receiving Holy Communion at Mass or outside of it, they also use the term First Communion when one receives the Eucharist for the first time.
Some Christian denominations [1] [2] [3] place the origin of the Eucharist in the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, at which he is believed [4] to have taken bread and given it to his disciples, telling them to eat of it, because it was his body, and to have taken a cup and given it to his disciples, telling them to drink of it because it was the cup of the covenant in his blood.
The number of the sacraments in the early church was variable and undefined; Peter Damian for example had listed eleven, including the ordination of kings. [4] Hugh of Saint Victor enumerated nearly thirty, although he put Baptism and Holy Communion first with special relevance. [5]
Historically, First Communion was delayed until after an individual had completed catechism classes and been confirmed, but gradually the timing of First Communion shifted so that it was administered before Confirmation rather than after, following the Roman Catholic tradition. In many Lutheran churches, the average age of first communion is ...
The term Mass, also Holy Mass, is commonly used to describe the celebration of the Eucharist in the Latin Church, while the various Eastern Catholic liturgies use terms such as Divine Liturgy, Holy Qurbana, and Badarak, [6] in accordance with each one's tradition.
The Council of Trent, held 1545–1563 in reaction to the Protestant Reformation and initiating the Catholic Counter-Reformation, promulgated the view of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist as true, real, and substantial, and declared that, "by the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance (substantia) of the body ...