The Last Supper

Every year God's people kept the Passover. They ate a special meal with lamb, flat bread and wine to remember the night God led them out of slavery in Egypt.

On the day of the feast, Jesus sent Peter and John into Jerusalem to get the meal ready. They found a large upstairs room, just as Jesus had told them, and prepared everything.

That evening Jesus sat at the table with his twelve apostles. He told them he had longed to share this Passover with them before he suffered.

During the meal Jesus did something brand new. He took bread, gave thanks to his Father, broke it and handed it to them. He told them that this was his body, given for them. Then he told them to do this in memory of him.

After supper he took the cup of wine and told them it was his blood, poured out for them, the blood of God's new covenant.

Jesus was not pretending. The bread really became his body, and the wine really became his blood. It still looked and tasted like bread and wine, but it was truly Jesus.

The next day Jesus would give his life on the cross. At this meal, he gave his friends a way to receive that great gift of love forever.

Jesus told the apostles to keep doing what he had done. So the apostles became the first priests of the Church. Today, at every Mass, the priest says Jesus' words, and the bread and wine become Jesus' Body and Blood. When we receive Holy Communion, Jesus comes to live in us.

The word Eucharist means thanksgiving, because Jesus gave thanks, and we give thanks too.