{"id":70995,"date":"2026-08-14T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=70995"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:32:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:32:55","slug":"benini-series-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/benini-series-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Benini Series Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">By Fr. Marco Benini, August 14, 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>In this weekly series, Fr. Benini invites the reader to join him in a prayerful exploration of Eucharistic celebration as a daily encounter with Christ.\u00a0 Used with permission of Paulist Press,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.paulistpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.paulistpress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>BEHOLD, THE LAMB!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The liturgy often quotes a single Bible verse and yet allows the context to resonate. \u201cBehold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.\u201d With these words, the priest shows the broken host. He is literally quoting the call of John the Baptist (John 1:29, 36) which he uttered twice: when he saw Jesus coming toward him, and the next day when he watched Jesus walking by (the Greek emphasizes seeing here) and pointed his disciples to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The encounter of the disciples with Jesus (see John 1:35\u201342) is a wonderful image for communion. As the disciples followed him in response to this word, we look toward the altar. Jesus turned; he shows us his face in the host. The first word of Jesus in the Gospel of John is: \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d He is interested in us and wants to satisfy our longing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The disciples ask: \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d Jesus\u2019s answer, \u201cCome, and you will see,\u201d becomes an invitation in the Mass to come to communion. \u201cSo they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day.\u201d The disciples do the same as Jesus\u2014they stay. Here staying is less a statement of time and more a statement of quality. The disciples were so impressed that they remember the exact time: \u201cIt was about four in the afternoon.\u201d So it was probably not a very long time, but a fulfilling, joyful time in union (communion) with Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of \u201cstaying\u201d in the English translation, the Greek original uses the word for \u201cremaining,\u201d a signal word. In John, \u201cremaining\u201d is a characteristic of discipleship and also has a Eucharistic connotation, since it is used in both the bread and the vine discourses (chaps. 6 and 15). The two discourses in John\u2019s Gospel belong together like bread and wine in the Mass. Remaining with the Lord (in communion) is full of promise: \u201cWhoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him\u201d (6:56). And: \u201cWhoever remains in me and I in him, will bear much fruit\u201d (15:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After their return, Andrew, one of the two, tells his brother Peter: \u201cWe have found the Messiah,\u201d that is, Christ. Perhaps the first disciples can become a model for our going to communion: see\u2014come\u2014stay\u2014profess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>From: Marco Benini, Were Not Our Hearts Burning? Understanding the Mass \u2013 Living the Eucharist, Paulist Press: New York \/ Mahwah, NJ, 2026, p. 86 f.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5776-1Were-Not-Our-Hearts-Burning.tif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-70851\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Marco Benini<\/strong>&nbsp;is ordinary professor of liturgical studies at the German Liturgical Institute in Trier and research professor at The Catholic University of America.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FR. MARCO BENINI \u2014 The host invites us to see, come, stay, and remain in Christ just as the first disciples did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":70957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[3009,4591,3530,3817,4594,3480,4592,3021,4593],"class_list":["post-70995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recently-published-books","tag-mass","tag-eucharistic-theology","tag-liturgical-formation","tag-marco-benini","tag-mass-2","tag-pastoral-theology","tag-paulist-press","tag-pope-francis","tag-were-not-our-hearts-burning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benini Series Continues - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/benini-series-continues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benini Series Continues - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FR. 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