There can be no discussion of Eucharistic spirituality unless there is first of all, a Eucharistic celebration. Both the spirituality and the celebration, however, are unintelligible unless both exist within the reality of a Christian community. Major questions arise regarding the kind of community needed to ground both the celebration of Eucharist and the development of a Eucharistic spirituality. Through historic observation, Osborne challenges modern assumptions about Eucharistic spirituality. His assessment provides a healthy direction to the emerging 21st-century understanding of the Eucharist.

This book is based on the author’s 2005 lecture at Th e Catholic Church in the 21st Century symposium held in Kansas City, Missouri.