by Bob Zyskowski, The Catholic Spirit

Pope John Paul II briefly mentions the need for solemnity and sobriety in the celebration of the Eucharist in a setting "worthy of so great a mystery," as he writes in his encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia" - ("On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church").

The surroundings, the environment should aim not to trivialize the sacredness of the sacrificial banquet, he says. Art, architecture, sculpture, paintings and music ought to inspire Christianity, he adds.

The Holy Father appeals to the church to guard against Eucharistic celebrations that lose the proper solemnity, sacredness and universality, so that we don't "under value" the treasure of Mass as it has been handed down through the ages.

So how can those celebrating the mystery rightly partake of the treasure?

The pope recommends that, when we receive Holy Communion, we be like Mary: Upon receiving the Eucharist, think about Mary gazing at the face of the newborn Christ as she cradled him in her arms and again as she looked upon him from the foot of the cross.

Experiencing the Eucharist, he says, "means taking on a commitment to be conformed to Christ, putting ourselves at the school of his mother and allowing her to accompany us." The pope calls this taking on a true "eucharistic attitude."

Because he feels he has benefited so much from the practice, the Holy Father calls for pastors to encourage Eucharistic Adoration and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament as a way that they and their people can be renewed.

Time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is to be spent in spiritual conversation with God, in silent adoration, in contemplation of the face of Christ, "in heartfelt love before Christ present," the pope says. He calls adoration of the Eucharist an opportunity "to make contact with the very wellspring of grace."

When we receive Communion we are to be changed in order to change society, and in order to make that possible the Holy Father is calling Catholics to undertake the journey of Christian living with renewed enthusiasm.

Father Phillip Rask, pastor of Presentation of Mary in Maplewood who is a Scripture scholar and former seminary prof and rector, explained that receiving the Eucharist implies discipleship and mission.

"What Jesus did with bread and wine he does with us today," Father Rask said. "He takes us, blesses us, breaks us, gives us for the life and hope of the world.

"Talk about the Eucharist can sound so romantic, so superficial, so hollow, empty. And it will be all those things unless we who feed on the Body and Blood of Christ, on the Eucharist, become in turn Eucharists for the life of the world."

At the very basic level we all want three things, Father Rask said. We hunger for life, we hunger for love, and we hunger for meaning or purpose. "We want to do something meaningful with our lives, something that matters."

To satisfy our hungers, Jesus proposes himself, Father Rask said: His word, his teaching, his flesh." What Jesus offers is a relationship with himself and with the one by whom he was sent," he added. "It is this relationship with God that satisfies the hungers of the human heart."

In his encyclical Pope John Paul II writes that Christ is to be known, loved and imitated, and, in receiving the Eucharist and in living the life of the Trinity, we will, with Christ, transform history.

As the Holy Father puts it, "In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope."