John 10: 1-10

The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the life of the Church.' The parish community deepens its sense of its own identity as the Body of Christ when it celebrates the Sunday Eucharist, and as it draws from it the strength to live as disciples of the Risen Lord in a particular time and place.

The Mass has been central to the Irish Catholic identity and experience. Devotion to and the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was central to our cultural and religious selfunderstanding. Baptism has never formed the Irish Catholic imagination in the same way. Unlike many other European countries, no ancient baptismal sites have been found in our land.

The retrieval of the centrality of baptism prompted by the synodal journey must lead to a deeper sense of the four-fold presence of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration. Christ is present in the assembled community, in the minister who presides, in the word proclaimed, and in the consecrated elements of bread and wine. It is precisely here, gathered in the Spirit as daughters and sons of the Father, and therefore as brothers and sisters in Christ, that those who share a common dignity derived from baptism, are strengthened by word and sacrament to fulfil a common mission in the world.