Timothy P. O'Malley

In Becoming Eucharistic People, theologian Timothy P. O’Malley, author of Real Presence, outlines four essential dimensions of a Eucharistic culture in a parish—one that fosters reverence and unity among the faithful, includes every dimension of human life in the mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood, and invites people back to parish life or to become Catholic for the first time.

O’Malley—director of education at the McGrath Institute of Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, and a member of the executive planning team for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Eucharistic Revival—shows what it means to foster a parish culture where the Eucharist infuses the worldview, priorities, and practices of its members. O’Malley leads you through discovery and discernment about how to create a parish culture where each person is called to holiness and receives the spiritual, theological, and pastoral help they need to meet Christ fully present in the Eucharist and to become a witness to him in the world.

O’Malley will help you reflect on four essential facets of a Eucharistic parish culture:

liturgies of joyful reverence that celebrate the gifts of diversity;
formation that engages the mind, imagination, understanding, and will;
a rich life of popular piety and the vibrancy of the domestic Church; and
a commitment to solidarity with your neighbor.
O’Malley says that when we reflect Christ’s Real Presence to others, our parishes will become sacred spaces in which every person is led to deeper communion with God and with their neighbors.… (lisätietoja)

O’Malley offers a concise introduction to Catholic teaching on real presence and transubstantiation through a biblical, theological, and spiritual account of these doctrines from the early Church to today. He also explores how real presence enables us to see the vulnerability of human life and the dignity of all flesh and blood.

O’Malley leads you to a deeper understanding and renewed faith in Catholic teaching about transubstantiation and real presence by helping you learn

how the doctrine of real presence is rooted in divine revelation and how the Church’s teaching regarding transubstantiation is spiritually fruitful for the believer today;
how to make your own the doctrine of real presence by worshipping Christ in the Eucharist and therefore making a real assent to real presence;
how the Eucharist, although not the exclusive presence of Christ in the Church’s liturgy and mission, is crucial in growing our capacity for recognizing those other presences; and
the important relationship between Eucharistic communion and adoration.… (lisätietoja)

In 2019, a Pew Research Center study on the religious commitment and practice of American Catholics found a significant number of the faith did not have an accurate or complete understanding of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist Sacrament. This prompted Cardinal Seán O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston to proclaim a "Year of the Eucharist" for 2020-2021 to help rehabilitate the faithful. The "Real Presence" by Dr. Timothy O'Malley could very well be required reading in support of that endeavor.

Chapter One tackles the "Obstacles to Real Presence" by identifying three (3) points of confusion: an over-reliance on a physical interpretation of presence, a lack of reverence and an apparent false dichotomy between reverence and recognition of Christ's presence in others. Along the way, Fr. Thomas Reese S.J. is thrown under the bus for declaring that he "find[s] the theology of transubstantiation to be unintelligible" and that we should just "accept it as a mystery and not pretend we understand it." Unfortunately if we do that, I think that we take away some of the power that particular sacrament is supposed to have.

Chapter Two looks at the Real Presence in the Scriptures. Here is where Dr. O'Malley really shines because he focuses on what we mean by presence. After that we move on to Chapter Three to examine how the early Church Father's developed the "doctrine of Eucharistic presence" where the terms Body and Blood are associated to the Bread and Wine. The language used here by the early Fathers is not easily understood and I think this is where most readers start to fall away. While I can acknowledge the mystagogical element of the real presence, my modern mind has trouble with the constant use of Body and Blood when I do not see an actual body or blood. Why must these be linked in the Eucharist? What do we mean when we say Body? Can we explain that term other than symbolically if we don't actually have [what we normally view as] a physical body?

Chapter Four - Savoring the Mystery of Transubstantiation, attempts to answer these questions. After spending a little time with a couple of quarreling monks to define the argument as reality vs symbolic, Dr. O'Malley spends the reminder looking at St. Thomas Aquinas ... an amazing doctor of the church whose theology builds upon the concepts of substance and accidents decried by the afore mentioned Fr. Reese when he states that he does not "believe in prime matter, substantial forms, substance and accidents." Ultimately we get little here other than the belief that the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the true Body and Blood of Christ because the Church says so. Score one for Fr. Reese.

Chapter Five - Eucharistic Devotion and Real Presence, doesn't really add much to the debate, but it does offer a look at how the [various] practices of adoration can enable us to recognize the Real Presence in the Eucharist. While this was not the slam dunk that I was looking for, it does give me plenty to meditate on ... YMMV

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#RealPresence #NetGalley #YearoftheEucharist… (lisätietoja)