Redemptionis Sacramentum

This document from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments was requested by Pope Saint John Paul II in his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia. In order to bring out more clearly the deeper meaning of liturgical norms, Redemptionis Sacramentum gives clear guidelines and norms concerning practices which are to be praised or stopped.

The instruction discusses, among other things, the roles of the clergy and laity, distribution of communion, and Eucharistic adoration outside of Mass. It is based on the 1963 Sacrosanctum Concilium the (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)

“No one is permitted to undervalue the mystery entrusted to our hands: it is too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its universality.” (Pope Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 21)