Explore the Mysteries of the Eucharist

Welcome to Verbum

Start with Scripture

Welcome to Verbum! Over the next ten days we’ll be exploring the Eucharist, "the source and summit of the Christian life.” Let’s start our exploration with Scripture.

Begin by setting your preferred Bible translation in your Library. You can access the Library by clicking the icon of the three books in the top left of the app. Search for a Bible translation by name (e.g., “New American Bible” or “Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition”) or filter your Library by type to show only Bibles. When you find your preferred Bible translation, click the three vertical dots and select “Prioritize this resource.”

We will use the English Standard Version Catholic Edition for the rest of the study, but you are welcome to use whichever Bible you prefer. Click the title of your preferred Bible to open it, then type John 6 in the search field within the opened resource, just beneath the title. Now you have set your preferred Bible and opened a passage. Tomorrow we’ll explore more. Nota bene: instructions and screenshots are for the desktop app, but we link to the web app too.

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Advance to Day 2

The Passage Guide

Exploring John 6:22-27

When Christ calls himself “the bread of life,” what does that mean?

Verbum’s Passage Guide can help you begin to answer that question. When you type “John 6:22–27” into the search box you have the option to select the Passage Study Layout from the dropdown menu. You can also access the Passage Guide by selecting the Guides icon on the left sidebar (on desktop) or on the top bar (on the web app) and choosing <Passage Guide.

Once you click to open that option, Verbum will provide you with resources in your library related to the Scripture passage, from parallel passages to commentaries to liturgical references and the passage in Scripture itself—even information about the particular words in the passage. In the Commentaries section at the top of the Passage Guide, select Catena Aurea to read comments from Church Fathers—collected by St. Thomas Aquinas and translated by St. John Henry Newman—on John 6:22-27.

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Advance to Day 3

Bible Word Study

Flesh of the Son of Man

In John 6:53 Christ says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Let’s study the word “flesh” with the Bible Word Study guide. “Flesh” is translated from the Greek σαρξ, and the Bible Word Study shows every translation of σαρξ in your preferred Bible. (You can switch between Bible translations by clicking Settings.) Click on any of the translation choices in the circle to see every Bible passage where that particular translation choice appears or click on σαρξ in the center of the circle to see every passage where it appears. Scroll down further in the Bible Word Study to see different senses of σαρξ and how frequently they appear. In the Clause Participants section, you can select the arrow next to Jesus to see every passage in which σαρξ appears in relation to Christ.

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Advance to Day 4

Catholic Topical Index

Browse topically

If you’re not sure where in Scripture to begin, you can also start with a topic. Get an overview of what the Church has to say on a topic without searching through dozens of books or websites with Verbum’s Catholic Topical Index. Let’s try it by searching for “Eucharist.” Find the Catholic Topical Index in the Library the same way you found your preferred Bible on the first day. Open the Index and type in “Eucharist” in the search box, and explore what the Church has to say in the Scriptures, Teachings, Liturgy, and Tradition. When you find the Catholic Topical Index in your Verbum Library, drag it to the “Drag and drop shortcuts” section of the left sidebar (on the desktop app) or top bar (on the web app) to save it as a shortcut.

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Advance to Day 5

Catholic Topical Index

Catechism and Sources of Catholic Dogma

Let’s return to the Catholic Topical Index and use it as an entry point into the Catechism and Denzinger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma. The Index pulls together every reference in the Catechism and Denzinger to a particular topic. Click on the first Catechism reference (1322-1419) to open Article 3, The Sacrament of the Eucharist, or the first Denzinger reference (DS 1636–1642) to open the decree of the Council of Trent on the Most Holy Eucharist.

Nota bene: the Catholic Topical Index will display links to resources even if you do not yet own them, so as you grow your Verbum library more of the linked resources will be available to you.

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Advance to Day 6

Modern Theology

Introduction to the Theology of the Eucharist

In addition to foundational resources like the Catechism and Denzinger, we can also study the Eucharist through modern Catholic scholarship. Today, go to your Library, marked by an icon of three books, and search “Eucharist” to find Bread From Heaven: An Introduction to the Theology of the Eucharist by Bernhard Blankenhorn, OP.

Navigate through the book until you find a notable passage; e.g., the opening of pg. 64: “Jesus instituted the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment for God’s people. He gave the Church particular signs of this nourishment, in fulfillment of Old Testament figures of the Eucharist. Scripture and the early liturgical tradition manifest the institution of the signs of bread and wine.” Select the passage, and you’ll have the choice to highlight it or leave a note. Your highlighting and notes will sync across all devices, and if you copy and paste the passage into a document, a citation will automatically be pasted with it.

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Advance to Day 7

Reading Plan

Organize your spiritual reading

Do you need more structure for your spiritual reading? Verbum can generate a reading plan for any book in your Library. Search in the Library for “Eucharist” again and right click on Bread From Heaven: An Introduction to the Theology of the Eucharist to select the choice “Start a Reading Plan”. Set the pace and timing and start date of your reading and then Verbum will create a reading schedule. Check off readings as you complete them.

On the desktop app, you can also start a reading plan by opening Documents and selecting New. Generate a reading plan to read the Bible or Catechism in a year. View your reading plan as a calendar or list and then dive in!

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Advance to Day 8

Search

Body and Blood and Christ

Today we will search the Library and Bible. The Verbum desktop gives search templates that allow you to complete complicated searches without knowing any special search syntax. Open the Search tool and choose the search template All of the Terms. Add the three terms “body,” “blood,” and “Christ” to see every instance in your library where those terms appear together. Open one of the top search results, the Second Article of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, and all of the terms in your search will be highlighted.

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Advance to Day 9

Old Testament

Search within a resource

Today we explore The Catholic Introduction to the Bible, Volume 1: The Old Testament to learn how the Eucharist is prefigured in the Old Testament. In addition to searching your entire Library, you can also search within a single resource. To search within a resource, click the small magnifying glass beneath the title and type “Eucharist” into the search field. This search will find every instance of the word in the resource. Open “Melchizedek, the Priesthood, and the Eucharist” to read about the typological significance of Melchizedek and his encounter with Abraham, how Melchizedek’s sacrifice of bread and wine foreshadows Jesus Christ, and why “in light of such connections in the living tradition of the Church, the account of Melchizedek is read at Masses devoted to Eucharistic veneration: the Feast of Corpus Christi and votive Masses to the Most Holy Eucharist.”

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Advance to Day 10

Catholic Encyclopedia

The last day of our study

Thank you for joining us in this ten day study of the Eucharist! For the final day of our study let’s open the Catholic Encyclopedia. Within the resource navigate to “Eucharist” by clicking the three horizontal parallel lines and finding it in the table of contents or simply type “Eucharist” in the field beneath the title of the resource. When you open an article in the Encyclopedia—or any Verbum resource—all of the Scriptural references are links. Click the first reference, John 1:18, and that verse will open in your preferred Bible. As you read through the article on “Eucharist,” click on each Bible reference in turn.

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Ten Days on the Eucharist

Day One

Start with Scripture

Exploring John 6:22-27

Flesh of the Son of Man

Browse topically

Catechism and Sources of Catholic Dogma

Introduction to the Theology of the Eucharist

Organize your spiritual reading

Body and Blood and Christ

Search within a resource

The last day of our study

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