Customer Reviews

The Eucharist

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Written forty years ago already, the great and influential Dominican priest and preacher and professor the Reverend Father Edward Schilebeeckx clearly covers the history of the Eucharist, past, present and future, foreseeing even the exciting developments in our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis.


Please note as well this book, the Eucharist, by the REverend Father Edward Schillebeeckx, bears the IMPRIMATUR of His Excellency Robert F. Joyce, Bishop of Burlington, as well as the NIHIL OBSTAT of Father Leo Steady, Censor Librorum. For anyone to suggest this book should be banned is to place oneself above and beyond the judgment of the Catholic Church's own magisterium and hierarchy, which blesses this essential and comprehensive and still informative study. Such a person might then either accept the learned judgment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, or reconsider their own relationship to this Church.

In defending the revolutionary (for his times) statements of his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas (now our standard theological touchstone), Father Schillebeeckx asks how Saint Thomas and especially Saint Bonaventure's scholastic discoveries would be received in our persent instant media age, in which the majority of the Church might still reject their orthodox theology, maintaining still as then that the EUcharist is actual flesh and human blood rather than the mystery of transubstantiaion of aristotilean phenomeom of accident as explained carefully and subtly by Saint Thomas. Fr. Schillebeeckx writes without writing, between the lines, the difficulties encountered by the theologian now pursuing the Thomistic Eucharistic dogma, and the care and balance required in new restatements of the theological truths.


For instance, Father Schillebeeckx quotes Saint Thomas Aquinas's then extraordinary statement: "Corpus autem Christi non manducatur in sua specie, sed in specie sacramentali. (p. 15)" a dangerous writing when most Catholics still believed they were chewing actual human flesh rather than the "accidental appearances" of bread bearing the Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ. In this book, Father Schillebeeckx clearly, carefully, cleverly, completely explains, among several other orthodox Catholic Church dogma, this Thomistic concept of Sacramental species, and thus supplies us an excellent background for understanding and for living Our Holy Father's recent restatement of these truths of our Faith.

Briefly, and I strive here to write impossibly briefly, after this excellent introduction of the issues involved, Father Schillebeeckx devotes the first part of this book to explaining clearly the Tridentine approach to Faith, as defined at the Council of Trent which set so many other standards for our Church. He concludes this first section with a discussion of the Aristotelian doctrine of substance and accidents and their relevance to our Church and to the Eucharistic mystery, and asks the essential question "What is Reality?"

His second part brings the Tridentine principles up to date, in light of our scientific age. He breathtakingly explores the conflict between Aristotle and modern physics, and humbly displays the breadth and depth of his knowledge and faith in his defense of Trent and of Aquinas in the face of our modern perspectives. Any true believer may find here in this section sufficient response to those empirical philosophers and scientists who cannot "see" nor "sense" the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. If a host sits alone in a tabernacle, with no one to see and to hear and to pray and to adore, is it any less loved and loving? The empiricist might question whether the tree falling ni the wood with no one to hear makes any sound, but Saint Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that Christ is in no way confined in Real Presence by the Tabernacle.

Father Schillebeeckx then provides current anthropological and Lacanian concepts of Sacrament as Sign, sacramental symbolic activity, and the religious sacramental act, returning resoundingly to the Tridentine Concept of Substance. He then discusses how the One Real Presence of Christ can have manifold realizations. He touches on the Eucharist in the light of the then desire for Christian Unity, even with denominations which refuse to recognize the real presence in the Eucharist. He again underscores the Distinctively Eucharistic Manner of the Real Presence, and returns to Scriptural sources for exploring the Biblical assumptions.

Upon this foundation he develops the Basic Principle: "Reality is Not Man's Handiwork." We do not decide what is real and what is not. Christ is Really Present in the Eucharist. This is a Reality we did not make, but must recognize. To deny Reality is insanity (These are my own observations, not relections from Father Schillebeeckx, but inspired by him, who writes so much better, so much clearer, with such greater discipline and learning and structure).

Father Schillebeeckx concludes this great and good book by explaining the ways in which we seek to give meaning to the undeniable realities. We cannot deny the reality of an event, of a phenomenom, of a substance, but we diverge in our understanding of its meaning, and in our expression of that understanding. After explaining various aspects of this meaning-filling process, Father Schillebeeckx again returns to exposing this in light of the "Real Presence of Christ and of His Church in the Eucharist." and the Body of the Lord appearing in sacramental form, through transubstantiation, transsignification or a new giving of meaning.

An excellent and comprehensive conclusion closes this book, which is essential for any thinking Catholic seeking the ever unattainable understanding of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ, which has fascinated and challenged our Church from the first days of Christianity, and continues to do so, as evidenced in the urgent interest around the Pope's recent Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist.

Other important works to consider, along with our Holy Father's, include Eucharist and the Hunger of the World and The Eucharist and Human Liberation and of course The Living Bread by FAther Thomas Merton.


It is important here to note that at no point does Father Schillebeeckx suggest replacing the traditional Thomistic doctrine of the Transubstantiation with some new formula of transignification and in fact there is no contradiction between the two beyond the process of hermeneutics. In fact repeatedly at every point in this imformative and Faithful treatise, Father Schillebeeckx explains clearly and with conviction the concept of Transubstantiation as first written and taught by his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas, and held as a central doctrine of our Faith with some literalist grumblings ever since. Father Schillebeeckx in fact transmits a greater and more clarifying understanding, confirmed belief beyond all understanding, and conviction in the very orthodox and subtle and mystical doctrine of Transubstantiation than most Catholics then or now. Any restatement in terms of transfiguration seeks to address the contemporary concerns of the highest echelons of academic philosophers, including the Lacanian psychologists (as in for example, most accessibly Lacan for Beginners (Writers and Readers Beginners Documentary Comic Book) or Introducing Lacan (Beginners)) or even Bahtkin. At no point does Father Schillebeeckx deny in any way the dogma of the Transubstantiation, but rather explains more clearly and completely than in any other text available. Should the average Catholic come to encounter in this way the full implications of the Real Pressence in Transubstantiation, he may experience a mind-numbing shock similar to that experienced by the average American first reading carefully and with comprehension our Bill of Rights.

Written forty years ago already, the great and influential Dominican priest and preacher and professor the Reverend Father Edward Schilebeeckx clearly covers the history of the Eucharist, past, present and future, foreseeing even the exciting developments in our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis.


Please note as well this book, the Eucharist, by the REverend Father Edward Schillebeeckx, bears the IMPRIMATUR of His Excellency Robert F. Joyce, Bishop of Burlington, as well as the NIHIL OBSTAT of Father Leo Steady, Censor Librorum. For anyone to suggest this book should be banned is to place oneself above and beyond the judgment of the Catholic Church's own magisterium and hierarchy, which blesses this essential and comprehensive and still informative study. Such a person might then either accept the learned judgment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, or reconsider their own relationship to this Church.

In defending the revolutionary (for his times) statements of his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas (now our standard theological touchstone), Father Schillebeeckx asks how Saint Thomas and especially Saint Bonaventure's scholastic discoveries would be received in our persent instant media age, in which the majority of the Church might still reject their orthodox theology, maintaining still as then that the EUcharist is actual flesh and human blood rather than the mystery of transubstantiaion of aristotilean phenomeom of accident as explained carefully and subtly by Saint Thomas. Fr. Schillebeeckx writes without writing, between the lines, the difficulties encountered by the theologian now pursuing the Thomistic Eucharistic dogma, and the care and balance required in new restatements of the theological truths.


For instance, Father Schillebeeckx quotes Saint Thomas Aquinas's then extraordinary statement: "Corpus autem Christi non manducatur in sua specie, sed in specie sacramentali. (p. 15)" a dangerous writing when most Catholics still believed they were chewing actual human flesh rather than the "accidental appearances" of bread bearing the Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ. In this book, Father Schillebeeckx clearly, carefully, cleverly, completely explains, among several other orthodox Catholic Church dogma, this Thomistic concept of Sacramental species, and thus supplies us an excellent background for understanding and for living Our Holy Father's recent restatement of these truths of our Faith.

Briefly, and I strive here to write impossibly briefly, after this excellent introduction of the issues involved, Father Schillebeeckx devotes the first part of this book to explaining clearly the Tridentine approach to Faith, as defined at the Council of Trent which set so many other standards for our Church. He concludes this first section with a discussion of the Aristotelian doctrine of substance and accidents and their relevance to our Church and to the Eucharistic mystery, and asks the essential question "What is Reality?"

His second part brings the Tridentine principles up to date, in light of our scientific age. He breathtakingly explores the conflict between Aristotle and modern physics, and humbly displays the breadth and depth of his knowledge and faith in his defense of Trent and of Aquinas in the face of our modern perspectives. Any true believer may find here in this section sufficient response to those empirical philosophers and scientists who cannot "see" nor "sense" the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. If a host sits alone in a tabernacle, with no one to see and to hear and to pray and to adore, is it any less loved and loving? The empiricist might question whether the tree falling ni the wood with no one to hear makes any sound, but Saint Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that Christ is in no way confined in Real Presence by the Tabernacle.

Father Schillebeeckx then provides current anthropological and Lacanian concepts of Sacrament as Sign, sacramental symbolic activity, and the religious sacramental act, returning resoundingly to the Tridentine Concept of Substance. He then discusses how the One Real Presence of Christ can have manifold realizations. He touches on the Eucharist in the light of the then desire for Christian Unity, even with denominations which refuse to recognize the real presence in the Eucharist. He again underscores the Distinctively Eucharistic Manner of the Real Presence, and returns to Scriptural sources for exploring the Biblical assumptions.

Upon this foundation he develops the Basic Principle: "Reality is Not Man's Handiwork." We do not decide what is real and what is not. Christ is Really Present in the Eucharist. This is a Reality we did not make, but must recognize. To deny Reality is insanity (These are my own observations, not relections from Father Schillebeeckx, but inspired by him, who writes so much better, so much clearer, with such greater discipline and learning and structure).

Father Schillebeeckx concludes this great and good book by explaining the ways in which we seek to give meaning to the undeniable realities. We cannot deny the reality of an event, of a phenomenom, of a substance, but we diverge in our understanding of its meaning, and in our expression of that understanding. After explaining various aspects of this meaning-filling process, Father Schillebeeckx again returns to exposing this in light of the "Real Presence of Christ and of His Church in the Eucharist." and the Body of the Lord appearing in sacramental form, through transubstantiation, transsignification or a new giving of meaning.

An excellent and comprehensive conclusion closes this book, which is essential for any thinking Catholic seeking the ever unattainable understanding of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ, which has fascinated and challenged our Church from the first days of Christianity, and continues to do so, as evidenced in the urgent interest around the Pope's recent Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist.

Other important works to consider, along with our Holy Father's, include Eucharist and the Hunger of the World and The Eucharist and Human Liberation and of course The Living Bread by FAther Thomas Merton.


It is important here to note that at no point does Father Schillebeeckx suggest replacing the traditional Thomistic doctrine of the Transubstantiation with some new formula of transignification and in fact there is no contradiction between the two beyond the process of hermeneutics. In fact repeatedly at every point in this imformative and Faithful treatise, Father Schillebeeckx explains clearly and with conviction the concept of Transubstantiation as first written and taught by his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas, and held as a central doctrine of our Faith with some literalist grumblings ever since. Father Schillebeeckx in fact transmits a greater and more clarifying understanding, confirmed belief beyond all understanding, and conviction in the very orthodox and subtle and mystical doctrine of Transubstantiation than most Catholics then or now. Any restatement in terms of transfiguration seeks to address the contemporary concerns of the highest echelons of academic philosophers, including the Lacanian psychologists (as in for example, most accessibly Lacan for Beginners (Writers and Readers Beginners Documentary Comic Book) or Introducing Lacan (Beginners)) or even Bahtkin. At no point does Father Schillebeeckx deny in any way the dogma of the Transubstantiation, but rather explains more clearly and completely than in any other text available. Should the average Catholic come to encounter in this way the full implications of the Real Pressence in Transubstantiation, he may experience a mind-numbing shock similar to that experienced by the average American first reading carefully and with comprehension our Bill of Rights.

Fr. Schillebeeckx does an excellent job of analyzing the work of the Council of Trent, particularly in reference to the two main canons regarding the Eucharist. He points out that the essence of their statement is contained in Canon 1, that we partake of the real presence of Christ when we participate in the Eucharist. He then points out that Canon 2 is an explanation of Canon1 using Aristotelian Philosophy as a tool to understanding our faith.

He then goes on to explain that in the past 800 years the tools available to theologians to help us understand our faith have progressed dramatically, and it is time to explain Canon 1 using more current theological tools. This is, in fact what he does, and he does it very clearly and very systematically.

At no time does he ever question Canon1, that we partake of the real presence of Christ when we participate in the Eucharist.

I would ask those who are initially disturbed by Fr. Schillebeeckx's work to take another closer look at it with the above comments in mind. The Catholic Church has a rich tradition of encouraging theologians to help us understand our faith better, and to use the best tools available to them to accomplish this task, and I feel that Fr. Schillebeeckx has done an excellent job of continuing this tradition.

Written forty years ago already, the great and influential Dominican priest and preacher and professor the Reverend Father Edward Schilebeeckx clearly covers the history of the Eucharist, past, present and future, foreseeing even the exciting developments in our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's Sacramentum Caritatis: el Sacramento de la Caridad: una Exhortacion Apostolica Postsinodal.

In defending the revolutionary (for his times) statements of his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas (now our standard theological touchstone), Father Schillebeeckx asks how Saint Thomas and especially Saint Bonaventure's scholastic discoveries would be received in our persent instant media age, in which the majority of the Church might still reject their orthodox theology, maintaining still as then that the EUcharist is actual flesh and human blood rather than the mystery of transubstantiaion of aristotilean phenomeom of accident as explained carefully and subtly by Saint Thomas. Fr. Schillebeeckx writes without writing, between the lines, the difficulties encountered by the theologian now pursuing the Thomistic Eucharistic dogma, and the care and balance required in new restatements of the theological truths.


For instance, Father Schillebeeckx quotes Saint Thomas Aquinas's then extraordinary statement: "Corpus autem Christi non manducatur in sua specie, sed in specie sacramentali. (p. 15)" a dangerous writing when most Catholics still believed they were chewing actual human flesh rather than the "accidental appearances" of bread bearing the Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ. In this book, Father Schillebeeckx clearly, carefully, cleverly, completely explains, among several other orthodox Catholic Church dogma, this Thomistic concept of Sacramental species, and thus supplies us an excellent background for understanding and for living Our Holy Father's recent restatement of these truths of our Faith.

Briefly, and I strive here to write impossibly briefly, after this excellent introduction of the issues involved, Father Schillebeeckx devotes the first part of this book to explaining clearly the Tridentine approach to Faith, as defined at the Council of Trent which set so many other standards for our Church. He concludes this first section with a discussion of the Aristotelian doctrine of substance and accidents and their relevance to our Church and to the Eucharistic mystery, and asks the essential question "What is Reality?"

His second part brings the Tridentine principles up to date, in light of our scientific age. He breathtakingly explores the conflict between Aristotle and modern physics, and humbly displays the breadth and depth of his knowledge and faith in his defense of Trent and of Aquinas in the face of our modern perspectives. Any true believer may find here in this section sufficient response to those empirical philosophers and scientists who cannot "see" nor "sense" the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. If a host sits alone in a tabernacle, with no one to see and to hear and to pray and to adore, is it any less loved and loving? The empiricist might question whether the tree falling ni the wood with no one to hear makes any sound, but Saint Thomas Aquinas makes it clear that Christ is in no way confined in Real Presence by the Tabernacle.

Father Schillebeeckx then provides current anthropological and Lacanian concepts of Sacrament as Sign, sacramental symbolic activity, and the religious sacramental act, returning resoundingly to the Tridentine Concept of Substance. He then discusses how the One Real Presence of Christ can have manifold realizations. He touches on the Eucharist in the light of the then desire for Christian Unity, even with denominations which refuse to recognize the real presence in the Eucharist. He again underscores the Distinctively Eucharistic Manner of the Real Presence, and returns to Scriptural sources for exploring the Biblical assumptions.

Upon this foundation he develops the Basic Principle: "Reality is Not Man's Handiwork." We do not decide what is real and what is not. Christ is Really Present in the Eucharist. This is a Reality we did not make, but must recognize. To deny Reality is insanity (These are my own observations, not relections from Father Schillebeeckx, but inspired by him, who writes so much better, so much clearer, with such greater discipline and learning and structure).

Father Schillebeeckx concludes this great and good book by explaining the ways in which we seek to give meaning to the undeniable realities. We cannot deny the reality of an event, of a phenomenom, of a substance, but we diverge in our understanding of its meaning, and in our expression of that understanding. After explaining various aspects of this meaning-filling process, Father Schillebeeckx again returns to exposing this in light of the "Real Presence of Christ and of His Church in the Eucharist." and the Body of the Lord appearing in sacramental form, through transubstantiation, transsignification or a new giving of meaning.

An excellent and comprehensive conclusion closes this book, which is essential for any thinking Catholic seeking the ever unattainable understanding of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ, which has fascinated and challenged our Church from the first days of Christianity, and continues to do so, as evidenced in the urgent interest around the Pope's recent Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist.

Other important works to consider, along with our Holy Father's, include Eucharist and the Hunger of the World and The Eucharist and Human Liberation and of course The Living Bread by Father Thomas Merton.


It is important here to note that at nopoint does Father Schillebeeckx suggest replacing the traditional Thomistic doctrine of the Transubstantiation with some new formula of transignification and in fact there is no contradiction between the two beyond the process of hermeneutics. In fact repeatedly at every point in this imformative and Faithful treatise, Father Schillebeeckx explains clearly and with conviction the concept of Transubstantiation as first written and taught by his brother Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas, and held as a central doctrine of our Faith with some literalist grumblings ever since. Father Schillebeeckx in fact transmits a greater and more clarifying understanding, confirmed belief beyond all understanding, and conviction in the very orthodox and subtle and mystical doctrine of Transubstantiation than most Catholics then or now. Any restatement in terms of transfiguration seeks to address the contemporary concerns of the highest echelons of academic philosophers, including the Lacanian psychologists (as in for example, most accessibly Lacan for Beginners (Writers and Readers Beginners Documentary Comic Book) or Introducing Lacan (Beginners)) or even Bahtkin. At no point does Father Schillebeeckx deny in any way the dogma of the Transubstantiation, but rather explains more clearly and completely than in any other text available. Should the average Catholic come to encounter in this way the full implications of the Real Pressence in Transubstantiation, he may experience a mind-numbing shock similar to that experienced by the average American first reading carefully and with comprehension our Bill of Rights.

Please note as well this book, the Eucharist, by the REverend Father Edward Schillebeeckx, bears the IMPRIMATUR of His Excellency Robert F. Joyce, Bishop of Burlington, as well as the NIHIL OBSTAT of Father Leo Steady, Censor Librorum. For anyone to suggest this book should be banned is to place oneself above and beyond the judgment of the Catholic Church's own magisterium and hierarchy, which blesses this essential and comprehensive and still informative study. Such a person might then either accept the learned judgment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, or reconsider their own relationship to this Church.

There is nothing here, especially not on the uncited page 120, which in any way opposes the official teaching of the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. There is nothing here which has been found by the Chruch's own censors to obstruct its publication. This is the meaning of the Nihil Obstat.

For anyone to contend they find something here which offends their Faith, if they have seen this book at all, is to claim to know the Catholic faith better than the Catholic Church's own hierarchy and Censor Librorum. This therefore is no longer the Roman Catholic Faith, but some schism, if they are serious at all, which is not apparent. They are following there own gleeful lights, and not the Catholic Faith as established and maintained in the Holy See. To so mock the the official pronouncements of our heirarchy is against Canon Law, and cannot be taken seriously. To mislead "faithful Catholics" to avoid this book is to oppose the official pronouncements of the Church, and thus to deceive the faithful, and is clearly contemptible. I hope such joking receives its just reward, which it apparently shall not upon the amazon.

I quote from page 120, which is one paragraph, or rather partial paragraph which begins on page 119 and ends on page 121 (in the 1995 sixth impression by London's Sheed and Ward). Let me first point out these pages present not the Reverend Father Schillebeeckx's own conclusions, but his summary of an article by another Catholic theologian, which had been published in the well-known and respected academic Catholic theological journal Verbum. Thus this quote begins with a quote from the other theologian:

"'It is interpersonal - the host mediates between the Lord (in his Chruch) and me (in the same Church). I kneel, not before a Christ who is, as it were, condensed in the host, but before the Lord himself who is offering his reality, his body, to me through the host.' The host is Christ's gift of himself, and Christ's persence is that of the giver in the gift, as J. Moller and, later, L. Smits have argued. The gift here is food and drink, but these are not a gift from an ordinary man, but from Jesus, the Christ, and they are therefore the non-deceptive, but irrevocably authentic gift of Christ himself. It is, of course, true that Christ also gives himself in the other sacraments. But this gift of himself is realised in the most supreme way in the Eucharist - the bread and the wine become fully signs. 'What takes place in the Eucharist is a change of sign.' Transubstantiation is a transfinalisation or a transsignification, but at a depth which only Christ reaches in his most real gift of himself. Bread and wine become(together with the words of consecration) the signs which realize this most deep gift of Christ himself. Schoonenberg concludes: 'Those among us who are older rightly regard their faith in Christ's presence under the species as a great treasure. ( . . .)'"

One need not go very far to learn the absolute error that is entrenched within this book. Schillebeeckx's transignification and transfinalization ideologies and the way he describes them in parallel to transubstantiation reek of heresy. Page 120 is the main culprit in this book. In essence he denies transubstantiation as the council of Trent has taught and tries to reinterpret it. Schillebeeckx has been warned and criticized by the Vatican for some of his works.

I recently ran across a liberation theology book which quotes Schillebeeckx's interpretation on the Eucharist and conclude that the Eucharist is about brotherhood - a mere remembrance of Christ and a mere meal.

If you are looking to familiarize yourself with modern day errors concerning the Blessed Sacrament then this book would be a reference - it helps to understand what Schillebeeckx and Kung are thinking. But that is all that it is good for, otherwise it's garbage.

This brief yet substantial treatise on the dogma of the transubstantiation bears the official approbation of the Vatican in the from of the Hierarchy's Imprimatur (from the Latin for "Must Be Published") as well as the Censor Librorum's Nihil Obstat (from the Latin again for Nothing Obstructs its publication as official Catholic theology).

Having thus passed the intensive test and revision by the Censor Librorum and the Hierarchy, this book may be with safety and assurance received into the home of every Catholic, to deepen and extend our understanding of our great Faith in the sacrament of the Eucharist which unites and compels us.

As a Dominican professor of Dogmatic Theology, as was the great and insuperable Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Reverend Father Edward Schillebeeckx may seem too scholastic for our modern tastes. For this very reason we do well to study the scholastic explanation of the Eucharist, as Father Schillebeeckx generously, brilliantly, brings the fullness of Thomas to our own times.

We have here the significance of the historical and social and scholastic and philosophical contexts of the time of Thomas, as well as a profound explanation of the universal and eternal truths of the dogma of the transubstantiation, as best understood in our contemporary philosophical situation. Once again, this approach may seem insurmountably academic for the untrained and casual Catholic reader, and yet we are richly rewarded for every strenuous effort we may put into its reading. Father Schillebeeckx begins by explaining how the majority of the Church of Thomas's time could not understand nor accept his theological teachings either, and yet his teachings were declared official Catholic theology over one hundred yeares ago (centuries after their writing).

Please prepare yourself for serious writing in this work, which will make all other considerations of the Eucharist seem superficial and incomplete. By reading as lectio divina with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul and all of your strength, you will find this book a solid sacramental support to our Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. And with that same strength we are commanded to love our God. By this book we may grow stronger in that Divine Love.

Schillebeeckx's idea of transubstantiation in this book is dangerous. I recommend God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life as a better and more orthodox book on the eucharist. Schillebeeckx's books should be read with discretion by discerning Catholics, he has supported liberation theology, ordination of women & the removal of celibacy for priests. A previous reviewer has mentioned that Schillebeeckx was named as one of the top three theologions in theThe HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. Check out the 1-3 star reviews and you will see that this is not such a great accolade afterall.

There is nothing here, especially not on the uncited page 120, which in any way opposes the official teaching of the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. There is nothing here which has been found by the Chruch's own censors to obstruct its publication. This is the meaning of the Nihil Obstat.

For anyone to contend they find something here which offends their Faith, if they have seen this book at all, is to claim to know the Catholic faith better than the Catholic Church's own hierarchy and Censor Librorum. This therefore is no longer the Roman Catholic Faith, but some schism, if they are serious at all, which is not apparent. They are following there own gleeful lights, and not the Catholic Faith as established and maintained in the Holy See. To so mock the the official pronouncements of our heirarchy is against Canon Law, and cannot be taken seriously. To mislead "faithful Catholics" to avoid this book is to oppose the official pronouncements of the Church, and thus to deceive the faithful, and is clearly contemptible. I hope such joking receives its just reward, which it apparently shall not upon the amazon.

I quote from page 120, which is one paragraph, or rather partial paragraph which begins on page 119 and ends on page 121 (in the 1995 sixth impression by London's Sheed and Ward). Let me first point out these pages present not the Reverend Father Schillebeeckx's own conclusions, but his summary of an article by another Catholic theologian, which had been published in the well-known and respected academic Catholic theological journal Verbum. Thus this quote begins with a quote from the other theologian:

"'It is interpersonal - the host mediates between the Lord (in his Chruch) and me (in the same Church). I kneel, not before a Christ who is, as it were, condensed in the host, but before the Lord himself who is offering his reality, his body, to me through the host.' The host is Christ's gift of himself, and Christ's persence is that of the giver in the gift, as J. Moller and, later, L. Smits have argued. The gift here is food and drink, but these are not a gift from an ordinary man, but from Jesus, the Christ, and they are therefore the non-deceptive, but irrevocably authentic gift of Christ himself. It is, of course, true that Christ also gives himself in the other sacraments. But this gift of himself is realised in the most supreme way in the Eucharist - the bread and the wine become fully signs. 'What takes place in the Eucharist is a change of sign.' Transubstantiation is a transfinalisation or a transsignification, but at a depth which only Christ reaches in his most real gift of himself. Bread and wine become(together with the words of consecration) the signs which realize this most deep gift of Christ himself. Schoonenberg concludes: 'Those among us who are older rightly regard their faith in Christ's presence under the species as a great treasure. ( . . .)'"

This book from beginning to end defends and explains the Thomistic and official Church dogma of the transubstantiation.

This book bears the official Imprimatur of our Hierarchy, and also passed the official Censor Librorum, receiving the Nihil Obstat, which clearly designates there is nothing in this book which opposes official teaching of our magisterium, and that there is nothing in this book which would block its publication (nihil obstat).

This book remains one of our finest documents explaining clearly the history and meaning of the transubstantiation of the Blessed Sacrament, and one of the best ways for Catholics and converts and initiates and the curious to come to grips and comprehend this mystery of our Faith, in our Eucharist.

Please read this book as a glorious and brilliant and officially approved theological document essential to our Theology. You will not be disappointed. Great reading for Lent our any other time of the year.

Highly recommended and officially approved.