Letter To Roseville Lutheran Church

Dear Roseville Lutheran Church,
I am writing you today as a concerned member of your congregation. Recently, I found myself on the doorstep of an old, breath-takingly beautiful cathedral, but I stumbled in only to realize that I, a devout Lutheran, am not allowed to receive communion. My lack of knowledge on the Eucharist and the guidelines the Catholic church has placed on this sacrament lead to a response of hostility and hurt on this particular guideline. I am writing to tell you that my response of hostility and hurt was wrong, and dangerous for me and my faith. To come to this conclusion, you must first understand the history behind Catholic communion, the Catholic view on transubstantiation, acceptance in relation to the Eucharist, the
Many Catholics would say that much of his letter supports transubstantiation, meaning the bread and wine become the physical body and blood of Christ. This view differs from the Lutheran view of consubstantiation, where the bread and wine are symbols of remembrance. Paul writes, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf,” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Scholar Patricia Lipperini concurs from this that, “In doing so, he grasps the dynamic, unifying nature of the Eucharist that results in a new existence for Christian believers,” (Lipperini 1) The early Catholic church ignored this relationship, and placed greater emphasis on the ‘real presence’ of Christ in the elements, this movement encouraged an individual relationship with God. These two differing ways of thinking was one of the major contributors to the reformation, transubstantiation or consubstantiation. Although this is a major difference between Catholic and Lutheran beliefs, it also contributes to why Catholics take the Eucharist sternly, setting harsher