Communion / Lord’s Supper / Eucharist
A shared meal of bread and wine remembering Jesus’ death, which many Christians also understand as a real sharing in his body and blood.
A little more
At his last meal with his disciples before his crucifixion, Jesus took bread and wine, gave thanks, and told his followers to keep doing this in remembrance of him. Christians have done so ever since, though the name and frequency vary by tradition — Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, or Mass.
Christians genuinely differ on what happens during it. Catholic and Orthodox teaching holds that the bread and wine become, in some real sense, the body and blood of Christ. Many Protestants, including Lutherans, Anglicans and others, also speak of a real sharing in Christ’s body and blood, while other Protestant traditions emphasise it as a powerful act of remembrance. All agree it’s meant to be taken seriously, not casually.
Read it for yourself
- 1 Corinthians 11:23-26Paul passes on the earliest written account of Jesus’ instructions at the Last Supper.