From the start of her 2000 year history, the early church understood the paramount important of the eucharist. It took the church nearly 400 years to collect and assemble the bible, but the holy eucharist has been celebrated since the beginning.
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
-St. Paul the Apostle (1 COR 11:23-26)
