Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Dr. Brant Pitre

We hope that you have been enjoying the Family Christmas gift of Brant Pitre's Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. During this, the second year of the National Eucharistic Rival, we were excited at the opportunity to share this riveting book with each of you in the hope that it might enrich your experience with the Mass and Adoration here in our parishes. In reading it, I have personally found this to be the case, but I have also noticed that one of the other fruits I have experienced is that it has equipped me in a particular way to respond in difficult moments of conversation with friends and relatives. Questions about the Eucharist can be one of the most popular stumbling blocks in our conversations with non-Catholic acquaintances. In fact, the very day that I began reading this book I received a text message from a friend who was seeking advice on how to respond in a moment where the Church’s teaching on who can receive had been challenged by a Protestant friend. Interestingly, the author, Brant Pitre, opens the book with a similar experience from his own life. During a marriage preparation meeting with his wife and her well-studied Baptist minister, the latter proceeded to attempt a full-scale academic evisceration of the teaching of the True Presence. Faced with his own gaps in knowledge of the Sacred Scripture, Pitre describes how this catalyzed him to pursue advanced study rooted in Jewish tradition and the Bible. His hope is that through this book, which details his thorough findings on this subject, we can astutely provide responses during conversations where we are asked a variation of the questions “Where does Jesus say that this is the way we are to celebrate Mass” and “why should we believe that we are literally eating his body and blood”. As in his other books, Dr. Brant Pitre skillfully and charitably unearths the Jewish context of Christ’s words and actions surrounding the Eucharist, allowing us to be better equipped to respond to the doubts of others or our very selves and approach Christ in the Mass with optimal reverence and comprehension.