Professor Keith Egan
Saint Mary's
College
Religious Studies 242
"Eucharist"
The International Year of the Eucharist will conclude in October 2005. This course on the
Eucharist as a Way of Life is meant to offer students at Saint Mary's College an opportunity to
gain a deeper knowledge of the sacrament that the Second Vatican Council called the Source and
Summit of the Christian life. Eucharist celebrates the whole Christian life and is essential to
living the Christian life. What a community does not celebrate that community loses. This course
will explore what the New Testament tells us about what Jesus intended when he urged his followers:
"Do this in remembrance of me." The course will also explore the variety of ways that Eucharist has
been celebrated through the centuries. Special attention will be paid to the retrieval of the
Eucharist as a sacred meal. But, Eucharist is not only a celebration it is a call to lead a life of
justice, service, love and unity. The Eucharist will be studied in the context of being one of the
sacraments of Initiation along with the other sacraments of initiation: Baptism and Confirmation.
The Second Vatican Council challenged the Christian community to greater participation in the
celebration of the Eucharist--a participation that should be conscious, full and active. This
course will explore this sacrament
as a communal experience that calls its participants to work for justice and peace. The course will
also offer opportunities to integrate service of the poor and needy as part of the course's
learning experience.