The Eucharist – Handout

The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Christian Life 

(to accompany Ryan Bliven’s RCIA presentation on the Eucharist)

 

INTRO: Sacramentalized but not Evangelized 

  • a. Simply moving through Catholic institutions doesn’t ensure a young person encounters the Lord or develops a strong, personal faith…In other words, sadly, participating in church, attending religious education classes, and joining a parish youth group have little to no effect on whether young people sustain their faith into adulthood…The sacraments aren’t magic. If your child received the Eucharist or was confirmed without proper disposition, there a good chance that he may not have applied the grace that flowed from the sacrament. (Return: How to Draw Your Child Back to the Church, 12, Vogt 30-32)
  • b. Like Baptism partaking of the Eucharist does not automatically guarantee eternal life in heaven. Freedom to break communion with the Lord remains throughout our lives (Hebrews 6:4-8, 10:26-31; 12:15-17). Not only this but all children born into the Church must personally choose the follow Christ making the faith of their family their own.
    • “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
  • c. While the road that leads to eternal life is narrow, hard, and few find it (Matthew 7:13-14), disciples understand that it reaps abundant life, now and forever (John 10:10), and they further realize that the Good Shepherd never asks us to do anything that he has not already done himself, namely, embrace his Cross. When we are willing to die to ourselves and submit to God’s plan for our lives, we will ironically receive abundant life like never before. (Matthew 16:25; Luke 9:23)

 

  1. Understanding Salvation: Rescue and Restore
  • a. The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world”, and “he was revealed to take away sins”: Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state? (CCC 457)
    • Mark 2:17; John 8:34; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 Peter 5:8-11; Ephesians 2:12-22
    • Jesus came to restore paradise, to do what the first Adam failed to do, to give us all the opportunity to partake of eternal life. Salvation is about restoring all God’s creational purposes in Christ Jesus.
      • Romans 8:18-25
  • b. Salvation is a process that begins when a person first becomes a Christian through repentance, faith, and baptism. The process of ongoing conversion continues through the rest of one’s life and culminates at the Last Judgement at the end of time.
  • c. The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: “Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!” God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced: Let us fix our eyes on Christ’s blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance. (CCC 1432)
    • Luke 7:47
  • d. Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace. (CCC 1431)
  • e. …Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and ‘makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.’” (CCC 153)
  • f. Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith. (CCC 166)

 

1.1 Critical questions

  • a. Have you had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ? Can you say in some way your life is different because of a personal encounter with Him? [Examples: woman at the well (John 4), paralytic let down through the roof, the sick and demon possessed (Matthew 9:2; Matthew 4:24)]
  • b. Have you come to believe that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness (i.e., deathly sick and in desperate need of healing)? Do you believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, who died for your sins and the sins of the world, who rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven?
  • c. Have you made a willful decision to follow Jesus Christ? Do you feel you have responded to a personal call and invitation to follow Him? Can you say you have a personal relationship with Jesus and could you articulate it to others? Are you compelled to tell others like the woman at the well and the healed?

 

  1. Creation to New Creation: Salvation History
  • Bookends to God’s Story. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1) (see also Isaiah 65:17)
    • “All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and that one book is Christ, because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ.” (CCC 134)
      • And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:27, 44)
  • b. The Church “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful… to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.’ Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’“ (CCC 133)
    • The Church’s daily lectionary readings will take you through the entire Bible in 3 years. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has hundreds of Scripture citations and references and the Mass is saturated with Scripture in everything we say and do.
  • c. For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body. (CCC 103)

 

 

  1. Salvation History: Typology
  • a. The Church, as early as apostolic times, and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son. (CCC 128)
  • b. Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself. Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. (CCC 129)

 

3.1 Tree of Life (Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24; Revelation 2:7; 22:2)

  • a. The tree of life is a key that connects the story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation. We find it in the opening and closing chapters of the Bible. The book of Genesis reveals this mystical tree to signify how the LORD God wanted us to share in His divine life and the book of Revelation shows that Christ’s cross invites each one of us to enter into the mystery of salvation. This takes place on the altar at Mass where we personally experience the transformative effects of Christ’s cross as the tree of life and His body and blood as its fruit.
  • b. The tree of life is about a participation in the LORD’s life. The author of Genesis presents “the tree of life” (Genesis 2:9) as a specific tree that the LORD created in order to give us a share in His immortal life. Christ’s cross is the tree of life and He is the fruit. “Whoever eats my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). The Eucharist is the immortal fruit of the Tree: “The Tree of the Cross has borne a fruit that gives eternal life unto the world; and as we eat of it, O Christ, we are delivered from death.” – St. Ephrem

 

3.2 Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20)

  • a. Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who brought out bread and wine and blessed Abraham. For his name means “king of righteousness”, also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace” (Genesis 14:18-20). The new covenant requires a new priesthood and that priesthood is in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:4-6). Jesus, who is both king and priest, creates the new covenant in his blood, and like the old covenant, is accompanied by eating and drinking.
  • b. Because Jesus’ Offering of Calvary enters into the time transcendent heavenly sanctuary, it is an everlasting Offering and therefore continues forever. In addition, because his Sacrifice is not time-bound and thus continues forever, Jesus enables heaven and earth to intersect, empowering his Church on earth both to re-present and to partake of his Self-Offering under the sacramental forms of bread and wine, that is, according to the order of his Melchizedekian priesthood. (The Biblical Roots of the Mass, Nash, 47-48)
  • c. Eucharistic Prayer I: …Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance, and to accept them, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

 

 

 

3.3 The only Son (Genesis 22:2)

  • a. Jesus is the unique and promised son, like Isaac, who would be offered on the altar, bringing to fulfillment the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through his “Seed” (Genesis 22:2; John 3:16; Galatians 3:6-19).
  • b. The events surrounding Abraham’s sacrifice prefigure Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. God the Father offers up his only beloved son, Jesus, in Jerusalem—a city associated with Moriah, the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac (2 Chronicles 3:1; Psalm 76:2). Like Isaac, Jesus travels to this place on a donkey, and like Isaac, he carries the wood of the cross to Calvary. There, like Isaac, Jesus is willingly bound to the wood and offered as a sacrifice.

 

3.4 Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:3)

  • a. …For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival…(1 Corinthians 5:7-8). The New Testament reveals Jesus to be the Passover Lamb sacrificed on Calvary for our sins (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6). Eating the sacrificial lamb was an essential part of the Passover celebration (Exodus 12:8-12). A communion meal followed the sacrifice, and it was the shared meal that expressed the sealing of the covenant and forged communion between the participants and God. The Eucharist takes this to a level beyond time and space entering into the eternal where Communion becomes the most profound union we can have with God, penetrating to mind, body, and soul.
  • b. It is fitting that we address Jesus in the Mass, saying, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,” for the New Testament reveals Jesus as the new Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for our sake (1 Corinthians 5:7). The book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 5:6,12; 13:8) and conquers Satan (Revelation 12:11).
  • c. In another link with the Passover lamb, John’s Gospel notes that when the soldiers took Jesus down from the Cross, they did not break his legs as was ordinarily done to ensure that the person was dead (John 19:33). John points this out because the Passover lamb was supposed to be one whose bones were not broken (Exodus 12:46). Jesus’ death is portrayed as the sacrifice of a Passover lamb.

 

3.5 Manna (Exodus 16:31)

  • a. Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:32-35)
    • Revelation 2:17; Hebrews 9:4

 

3.6 Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34)

  • a. The Passover offering of lambs and the Day of Atonement sacrifices were the most important offerings of the Old Covenant. As the Letter to the Hebrews teaches, the Day of Atonement sacrifices both prefigured and were perfected by Christ’s once-for-all Sacrifice of himself. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, as described in Leviticus 16:1-34, the high priest of Israel would sacrifice a bull and two goats to atone for his sins and those of the nation. To complete the sacrifices and finish making atonement for Israel’s sins, the high priest had to enter the most holy place to offer the sacrificial victims to God, communing with the Almighty by sprinkling their blood in front of and on his mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14-15).
  • b. Now consider Christ’s Sacrifice of Calvary. As with the original Day of Atonement sacrifices, the Sacrifice of Calvary does not begin and end with the slaughter of the victim. That is, the Sacrifice does not begin and end with Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross on Good Friday. That is why we can speak of the Sacrifice of Calvary instead of the Sacrifice on Calvary: the sacrificial events are not confined to Christ’s Passion. When did Jesus enter into the heavenly sanctuary with his own body and his own blood? His body remained in his earthly tomb until his Resurrection. And while his Resurrection on Easter Sunday was essential to his Sacrifice (1 Cor. 15:17-22), he did not thereby enter into the heavenly sanctuary. After his Resurrection, Jesus told Mary Magdalene that he had “not yet ascended” to his Father (John 20:17). It was only after forty days of appearing to his disciples (Acts 1:3) that Jesus completed the Sacrifice of Calvary by ascending into heaven, fulfilling both the Day of Atonement sacrifices in particular and the Old Covenant in general (Hebrews 8:13; 9:23-24) (Biblical Roots of the Mass, Nash, 77-79)

 

4. The Eucharist – Source and Summit

  • a. In the early church worship centered on communion and only baptized Christians were admitted to its celebration (The Story of Christianity: Vol 1, Gonzalez, 99).
  • b. The expression “Lord’s table” is used to refer to the altar in the OT (Malachi 1:7, 12; cf. Ezekiel 41:22; 44:16). Paul’s reference to the Lord’s Supper as a participation in the Lord’s table” suggests that the celebration of Christ’s sacrifice now serves as the centerpiece for Christian worship as did the altar – the Lord’s table in the OT – where the people of Israel went to worship by bringing their sacrifices to the Lord (cf. Hebrews 13:10) (Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, Beale & Carson, 729).
  • c. Christians believed that communion joined them not only among themselves and with Jesus Christ, but also with their ancestors in the faith…communion joined the living and the dead in a single body. (The Story of Christianity: Vol 1, Gonzalez, 95)
  • d. Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all. (CCC 1326)
    • Hebrews 12:22-29
  • e. What does the Bible say? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread…For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many… As it is, there are many parts, yet one body…(1 Corinthians 10:17; 12:12-14, 20). There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all…(Ephesians 4:4-6).
  • f. Be careful, then, to observe a single Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and one cup of his blood that makes us one, and one altar, just as there is one bishop along with the presbytery and the deacons. – St. Ignatius [Letter to the Philadelphians 4 (c. A.D. 110)]
  • g. Break one loaf, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote which wards off death but yields continuous life in union with Jesus Christ. – St. Ignatius [Letter to the Ephesians 20, (c. A.D. 110)]
    • John 15:1-11

 

  1. The Eucharist – Memorial Sacrifice
  • a. In Scripture, a memorial does not merely recall a past event; it was relived and made present. Therefore, when Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me,” he was commanding the apostles to make present as a biblical memorial the sacrificial offering of his body and blood at the Last Supper. Biblically speaking “remember” means much more than merely pondering the past. A liturgical memorial brings the past and present together, making the past mystically present for the current generation.
    • Priests perpetuate this memorial through the continual celebration of the Eucharist, where Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice is present. Christ’s mandate to continue this liturgical action is linked with his institution of the New Covenant priesthood. (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 149, 301)
    • …In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; “thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament.” (CCC 1337)
  • b. The Passover itself was a sacrifice (Exodus 12:27). For Jesus to speak about Body and Blood in the context of Passover would bring to mind the Passover lamb. When Jesus says his body “will be given up for you” the term used in Luke’s Gospel for “given up” (didomain in Greek) is significant, for it is employed elsewhere in the New Testament in association with sacrifice (Luke 2:24; Mark 10:45; John 6:51; Galatians 1:4). When Jesus speaks of his Blood “which will be poured out… for the forgiveness of sins,” he alludes to the atoning sacrifices in the Temple, which involved blood being poured out over the altar for the purpose of bringing forgiveness (see Leviticus 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34). Significantly, Jesus speaks of “the blood of the new and eternal covenant.” These words echo what Moses said in the sacrificial ceremony at Mount Sinai that sealed God’s covenant union with Israel as his Chosen People (Exodus 24:1-17). With all these sacrificial themes—the Passover ritual, a body being given up, blood being poured out, and the blood of the covenant—Jesus clearly has some type of sacrifice in mind here. Yet, instead of speaking about the Passover lamb being sacrificed (which is what one might expect in the context of a Passover meal), he talks about his own body and blood being offered up and poured out in sacrifice. His blood is now the sacrificial blood of the covenant. Jesus surprisingly identifies himself with the sacrificial lamb normally offered for Passover. As such, Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper mysteriously anticipate his sacrifice on the Cross. (A Biblical Walk Through the Mass, Sri, 109-110)
  • c. In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them. (CCC 1363)
  • d. Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: “This is my body which is given for you” and “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.” In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross. (CCC 1365-1366)
  • e. In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father “once for all.” His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is – all that he did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life. (CCC 1085)

 

6. The Eucharist – Real Presence

  • a. The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” “This presence is called ‘real’ – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.” (CCC 1374)
  • b. What does the Bible say? The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)
    • “Participation” (Greek – Koinonia: fellowship, communion, sharing, close association between persons).
    • “Partake” (Greek – Metecho: share in – same word is used in Hebrews 2:14 that refers to the incarnate Christ as “sharing in” our humanity. He shares in our humanity that we might participate in His body, blood, soul, and divinity.
  • c. John 6:35-69 and 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
  • d …upon Consecration the bread and wine at Mass do not visibly transform into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Instead, the substance of the bread and wine become the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ while the form or accidents of the bread and wine (what we observe with our senses) remain (The Case for Catholicism, Horn, 169).
  • e. “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.” (CCC 1376)
  • f. We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing that is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food that has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus. – St. Justin Martyr [First Apology 66 (c. A.D. 151)]

 

7. Properly Disposed

  • a. The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: “Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (CCC 1384)
  • b. To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion. (CCC 1385)
  • c. To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest. (CCC 1387)
  • d. The assembly should prepare itself to encounter its Lord and to become “a people well disposed.” The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father’s will. These dispositions are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward. (CCC 1098)

 

 

 

 

Books

The Mass of the Early Christians by Mike Aquilina

A Biblical Walk Through the Mass by Ed Sri

You Can Understand the Bible by Peter Kreeft

A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn

The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn

Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass edited by Hahn & Flaherty

The Biblical Roots of the Mass by Thomas Nass

The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin

Reasons to Believe by Scott Hahn

The Case for Catholicism by Trent Horn

Evangelical Exodus edited by Beaumont

The Drama of Salvation by Jimmy Akin

The Bible is a Catholic Book by Jimmy Akin

A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Bergsma and Pitre

Ignatius Catholic Study Bible

Hard Sayings by Trent Horn

Why Catholic? by Trent Horn

Behold Your Mother by Tim Staples

Hail, Holy Queen by Scott Hahn

 

Websites

https://www.catholic.com/

https://formed.org/

https://www.newadvent.org/

https://www.emmausinstitute.net/

https://www.ewtn.com/radio/shows/called-to-communion