And concerning the broken bread. We thank thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which thou hast made known unto us through Jesus thy Son;
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 140 - 202 A.D.)
For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, IS NO LONGER COMMON BREAD BUT THE EUCHARIST, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly.
Tertullian (c. 155 - 250 A.D.)
The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord commanded to be taken at meal times and by all, we take even before daybreak.
Origen (c. 185 - 254 A.D.)
We give thanks to the Creator of all, and, along with thanksgiving and prayer for the blessings we have received, we also eat the bread presented to us; and this bread BECOMES BY PRAYER A SACRED BODY, which sanctifies those who sincerely partake of it.
St. Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200 - 258 A.D.)
And we ask that this Bread be given us daily.
St. Basil the Great (c. 330 - 379 A.D.)
To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial;
St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 - 394 A.D.)
The bread again is at first common bread; but when the mystery sanctifies it, it is called and actually becomes the Body of Christ.
St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315 - 368 A.D.)
But He Himself is in us through the flesh and we are in Him, while that which we are with Him is in God.
St Francis de Sales
“When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food."
Blessed Mother Teresa
"When the Sisters are exhausted, up to their eyes in work; when all seems to go awry, they spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. This practice has never failed to bear fruit: they experience peace and strength,"
St. Elizabeth Seton, about Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament
"How sweet, the presence of Jesus to the longing, harassed soul! It is instant peace, and balm to every wound."
St. Catherine of Siena
“You [God] are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its light, and causes me to know your truth and I know that you are beauty and wisdom itself. The food of angels, you give yourself to us in this fire of your love."
St. Margaret of Cortona
Of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist it is written: "This morning my soul is greater than the world since it possesses You, You whom heaven and earth do not contain,"
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
For us also, as soon as we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, let us go in haste to give Him to our sisters and our brothers, to our poor, to the sick, to the dying, to the lepers, to the unwanted, and You must really be sure that you have received Jesus. After that, you cannot give your tongue, your thoughts, or your heart to bitterness.
Edith Stein
"The Bread that we need each day to grow in eternal life, makes of our will a docile instrument of the Divine Will; sets the Kingdom of God within us; gives us pure lips, and a pure heart with which to glorify his holy name, "
Gerard Manley Hopkins
"We have him [God] before our eyes, masked in the sacred Host."
St. Francis of Assisi:
"What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation"
Padre Pio
"It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass."
St. John of the Cross
"The eternal tide flows hid in Living Bread. That with its Heavenly Life too be fed..."
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
This (Blessed) Sacrament above all inflames the soul with divine love. "God is love (1Jn.IV,8)". And He is the fire which consumes in our hearts all earthly affections: "The Lord thy God is a consuming fire (Dt.IV,24)". Now the Son of God came precisely to kindle this fire of love: "I am come to cast fire in the earth"; and He added that He did not desire other that to see ignited this holy fire in our hearts: "and what will I, but that it be kindled? (Lk.XII,49)". And oh what flames of divine love Jesus Christ ignites in each one who devoutly receives Him in this Sacrament!
St. Cyril of Alexandria
"When we ingest the Eucharist in reality we are ingesting the Godhead .....because His Body and Blood are diffused through our members we become partakers of the divine nature."
Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi
"The Bread of heaven puts an end to symbols."
Redeemer of Man, Pope John Paul II
"Beneath the Sacred Host, Christ is contained, the Redeemer of the world."
J.R.R. Tolkien
"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament....There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, that every person's heart desires."
From the writings of St. Catherine of Siena on the Blessed Sacrament
"O unfathomable depth! O Deity eternal! O deep ocean! What more could You give me than to give me Yourself?"
From the article "They Have Been With Jesus", by Rev. Franklyn M. McAfee
"The Eucharist strikes such fire within us that we are compelled by our actions and our presence to warm the people we live among and to melt the ice of hate, discrimination, indifference, injustice and isolation.”
Blessed Mother Teresa
"I know I would not be able to work one week if it were not for that continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."
From "The Holy Eucharist", by Jose Guadalupe Trevino
"Like the sick who expose their diseased bodies to the healing rays of the sun, expose miseries, no matter what they are, to the beams of light streaming forth from the Sacred Host."
Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, Art. 67
"For He is in the midst of us day and night [in the Blessed Sacrament]; He dwells in us with the fullness of grace and truth. He raises the level of morals, fosters virtue, comforts the sorrowful, strengthens the weak and stirs up all those who draw near to Him to imitate Him, so that they may learn from his example to be meek and humble of heart, and to seek not their own interests but those of God."
St. Francis
"I believe that You, O Jesus, are in the most holy Sacrament. I love You and desire You. Come into my heart. I embrace You. Oh, never leave me. May the burning and most sweet power of Your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech You, absorb my mind that I may die through love of Your love, Who were graciously pleased to die through love of my love."Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host."
Heaven For Me, St. Therese of Lisieux
"Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love. I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life, And there my Sweet Saviour listens to me night and day."
