Bread That Is Broken

by Wilfrid Stinissen

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 2020

Overview

The Holy Eucharist is the Church’s most precious treasure, the source and summit of her worship and life. The Church is built upon and around the Eucharist.

In this book, a renowned spiritual writer and Carmelite priest shows how receiving the Lord in the Eucharist has profound consequences, because the Eucharist is not only the great Sacrament that brings about oneness with Christ and with the faithful but also the foundational norm for Christian behavior. Any Christian who wonders how he should act, he writes, will find the answer in the Eucharist. He is called to become like Jesus—bread that is broken “for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51).

According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, all the sacraments are directed toward the Eucharist as toward their final purpose. The author explains that the Church must therefore guard this precious gift. He correctly challenges the faithful to approach the Eucharist with great reverence and a clear conscience so as not to receive the Lord unworthily but to become his sacrificing and serving people.

Key Features

• Shows how the Eucharist is the foundational norm for Christian behavior
• Explains the Eucharist’s role as the source and summit of the Church’s life and worship
• Challenges the faithful to approach the Eucharist with reverence and a clear conscience

Contents

• Preface
• 1. Meal
• 2. Sacrificial Meal
• 3. Presence
• 4. Agape, Self-Giving Love
• 5. Transformation
• 6. Thanksgiving
• 7. Unity
• 8. Eschatology
• 9. The Eucharist and the Church
• 10. The Eucharistic Ethic

Praise for Bread That Is Broken

An insightful meditation on the Eucharist that combines personal reflection with modern scholarship and biblical truth. It aims to help us enter more fully, consciously, and actively into the offering of the Mass.

—Fr. Michael Gaitley, M.I.C., Author, 33 Days to Morning Glory

The Eucharist is like a diamond, exquisite and sparkling with brilliance. With great wisdom and precision Fr. Stinissen shines the light so that every facet of the diamond bursts with color. Once the grandeur of the Eucharist is seen, belief and adoration follow.

—Steve Ray, Author, Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historic Church

Product Details

• Title: Bread That Is Broken
• Author: Wilfrid Stinissen
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 120
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subject: Eucharist
• ISBNs: 9781621643173, 1621643174
• Resource ID: LLS:BRDTHTSBRKN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-05-30T14:33:35Z

About Wilfrid Stinissen

Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D., was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he entered the Carmelite Order in 1944. He was sent to Sweden in 1967 to co-found a small contemplative community. His many books on the spiritual life have been translated into multiple languages. Among his works available in English are Into Your Hands, Father; Eternity in the Midst of Time; Bread That Is Broken; Mary in the Bible and in Our Lives; and The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love, all published by Ignatius Press.