ABSTRACT
From the earliest times the Eucharist, or the 'breaking of bread', appears at the centre of Christian life. In the first centuries it was treated as a kind of secret for which long preparation was needed and from which the uninitiated were excluded. Receiving the Eucharist requires a choice by the individual receiving it and an act by the community in the person of the priest. The institution of the Eucharist is described by three evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and by Paul. The doctrine of Transubstantiation depends on a conception of Prime Matter and metaphysics of change which no philosopher today would consider defensible. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is that the change of bread into Christ's body in the Eucharist is quite different from the change that occurred when he ate during his life.
