On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks (Greek eucharistia, 'thanksgiving'), broke it, and gave it to his disciples: 'This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' From the earliest days recorded in Acts, the Church gathered to 'break bread,' and the Eucharist — also called Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, the Mass, or the Divine Liturgy — has stood at the center of Christian worship ever since.
How the traditions understand it
What happens at the Table is described differently across the Church, and Theologos states each view in its own framing without adjudicating. The Roman Catholic Church confesses transubstantiation: the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ while the appearances remain. The Eastern Orthodox affirm a true change they are content to leave a mystery. Lutherans hold the sacramental union — Christ truly present 'in, with, and under' the bread and wine. The Reformed confess a real but spiritual feeding on Christ by the Holy Spirit. And many other Protestant traditions keep the Supper chiefly as a memorial and proclamation of Christ's death.
Beneath the real differences lies a shared inheritance: every tradition obeys the same command, remembers the same death, and looks for the same returning Lord. The Eucharist is the Church's family meal — and the place where its divisions are felt most keenly, and its longing for unity most deeply.