From Source and Summit to Parish Practice: A Qualitative Analysis of Eucharist and Social Outreach

A small-scale qualitative study in a Catholic parish situated in Ottawa, Canada, offers insights into the complex relationship between that community's worship and its commitment to social justice. This article brings the lived theology of this community into dialogue with the academic and magisterial perspectives on the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life. The dialogue is framed by the Theological Action Research Network's four voices of theology: operant, espoused, formal, and normative. This framework helps to center the marginalized theology of the faithful in the pews. In this case, the parish offered a dynamic theology of welcome across its liturgical and social practices. This emphasis on being a welcoming community bridges perceived gaps in the congregation's lived theology. Drawing on Susan Bigelow Reynolds's concept of ecologies of ritualizations, the article proposes a new metaphor--the Eucharist as a keystone species--to nuance the relationship between the liturgy and social outreach. This metaphor helps to embed the Eucharist more deeply within the network of ritualizations that form and are formed by the community.