Real Presence
Christ in bread
Real Presence is the Christian doctrine that Christ is genuinely present in the Eucharist—not merely symbolized or remembered, but actually there in the consecrated bread and wine.
The term appears most often in Catholic and Orthodox theology, where it anchors belief in transubstantiation or similar concepts.
Protestant traditions vary: some affirm Real Presence while rejecting the mechanism of transubstantiation, others treat communion as purely symbolic.
The doctrine of the Real Presence has divided Christians for centuries.
- EucharistSacramental bread and wine
- transubstantiationChange of underlying substance
- Holy CommunionSacrament of bread and wine
- communionProfound shared closeness
- Body of ChristUniversal fellowship of believers
Blessed Sacrament · sacrament · altar · consecration · Last Supper · bread · wine · breaking bread · body · blood · Christ · Lamb of God · tabernacle · Mass · Corpus Christi · liturgy · adoration · monstrance
- EucharistBlessed Sacrament, Holy Communion, bread and wine, communion wafer, communion wine
- liturgyDivine Office, missal, lectionary, rite, Tridentine Mass