Catechesis Notes for the Week — Christ’s Body and Blood — “It is the Word of Christ that ‘blesses’ or ‘consecrates’ the bread and wine of the Supper, making of them the very body and blood of Christ. ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you… Drink of it all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ A church cannot have the Lord’s Supper without the earthly elements of bread and wine and the Lord’s Word which makes of those elements the true body and blood of Christ. The miracle of the Sacrament lies with the Word of the Lord that ‘blesses’ the bread and wine. Faith receives what the Word declares…. All that Jesus is and has done for us He shares with us in the Sacrament.” [Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 280b] CP240218