The Holy Bread of Eternal Life: Restoring Eucharistic Reverence in an Age of Impiety

Recent decades have been marred by pervasive Eucharistic abuses that encourage irreverence and facilitate sacrilege. The coronavirus crisis of 2020 has occasioned a further wave of sacramental desacralization and deprivation that has left almost no Catholic in the world unharmed. These disturbing "signs of the times" call for an unsparing reassessment of policies, practices, customs, and attitudes, along with fresh appreciation for "creative minorities" who are taking a different, more difficult, and more successful path to reverence. In The Holy Bread of Eternal Life, scholar Peter Kwasniewski draws from Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Magisterium to explain the fitting veneration and handling of this "mystery of faith," the dispositions we need to cultivate for a fruitful reception of the Lord, and the blessings that follow from a life centered on Holy Communion. At the same time, he critiques many novelties in modern Catholic worship and shows why they must be set aside for the health of souls and of the Church. There is far more at stake in today's debates concerning Holy Communion than what preferences should be indulged or slipups tolerated. At stake is whether we truly believe that Jesus Christ is present in the Holy Bread of Eternal Life. Book jacket.