The Blessed Sacrament is a devotional name used in the Catholic Church, and also in Old Catholic and high church Anglican churches, to refer to the Eucharist gifts in the forms of Host and wine after they have been consecrated. Catholics believe in the real physical presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and hence carry out Eucharistic adoration. This belief is based on the definitions of the Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent and is quoted in of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which explains the meaning of Transubstantiation).

In Roman Catholicism

The Blessed Sacrament may be received by Catholics who have undergone their First Holy Communion (ie., given by a priest or other Minister of the Eucharist to

It can also be exposed (displayed) on an altar in a Monstrance. Rites involving the exposure of the Blessed Sacrament include Benediction and Eucharistic adoration. According to Catholic theology, adoration of the host is not the adoration of bread, but of Christ, who is transubstantiated in it. Catholics believe Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God prefigured in the Old Testament passover. Unless the flesh of that passover sacrificial lamb was consumed, the members of the household would not be saved from death.

See also

• Eucharist
• Corpus Christi