Eucharist

"They used to say of Abba Isaac that he used to eat ashes from the thurible used at the Eucharist with his bread."

"As an Altar Attendant... observing, especially during Eucharist, the intensity and power of his praying was spell binding. It seemed to me that he was not standing on the floor, but elevated. I mentioned this to others, and they agreed. St John was not a big man physically, but when he blessed the bread and wine, at that moment, making the Sign of the Cross over the Challis and Discus (plate) as required, he would thump the Altar Table, as he made the Sign. He could not have reached so far without being elevated. Recalling it now, I still get chills."

"When the rights of God are trampled with impunity, the rights of man are in danger."

"With Eucharistic faith, upheld by ecclesial tradition and based on the words of the Lord, we have access to real, though imperfect, certainties. Finally, in the face of the solitude and desperation that undermine mankind today, the Eucharist offers us... profound companionship and a promise of eternal life that fills us with definitive hope."

"The greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill. ... The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, [footnote: e.g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc. —T.J.] invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which Priestley has successfully devoted his labors and learning. It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted mankind; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from the chaff of the historians of his life."

"It wasn't just in Southern evangelical churches or Baptist churches. ... Even when [the Methodists] admitted African American churches into the larger Methodist denomination, they segregated them into one jurisdiction. It was essentially a version of religious gerrymandering so that they would get one bishop instead of possibly competing for power in other jurisdictions; they were all locked into one jurisdiction, so their voice inside the denomination will be smaller. And even among white Catholics, the Catholic Church had long had a practice of African Americans sitting in the back. [They] couldn't come and take part of the Eucharist until all the white members had done so. New York, for example, did the same thing, and actually segregated the African American Catholics into a single parish and also made only one Catholic school available to African Americans and made it a segregated school. And these practices continued in the middle of the 20th century, even even among Catholics in the North."

"We know that Father Nimatullah lived a holy life. He was a man of prayer, totally 'enraptured by God'. He spent days and nights in meditation, prayer and adoration of the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary was his patron and Father Nimatullah prayed Her Rosary. He was also a very humble, sensitive and patient person who lived his monastic vows of 'obedience, chastity and poverty' to perfection."

"We are here to pay respect to the successor of Peter and share with him all our joys and worries of our pastoral experiences. We want to share, with the Pope and others, our concern in regard to the lack of Eucharistic ministers, thus the gradual spiritual starvation of our Catholic people and their moving away from us to find spiritual nourishment elsewhere. What can we do to stop this spiritual wandering of our people?"

"In the early twentieth century, attention was drawn to Catherine’s remarkable mystical, mental, and at times almost pathological, experiences through the classic study by Baron Friedrich von Hügel, The Mystical Element in Religion as Studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends (1908). The last ten years of Catherine’s life were marked by violent interior emotions, mentioned in her works. It has been said that in many ways Catherine of Genoa is a “theologian of purgatory,” a purgatory that she herself experienced in a marriage she did not desire, in her care for plague victims, and also in her nervous illness. She also experienced purgatory spiritually as the soul’s realization of its own imperfections, in her search for salvation and purification. Influenced by Plato and Dionysius, the focus of her mysticism was, in spite of her eucharistic devotion, not so much Christ, but above all the infinite God. Her mysticism is primarily theocentric, not Christocentric. She speaks of the absorption into the totality of God as if immersed into an ocean: “I am so…submerged in His immense love, that I seem as though immersed in the sea, and nowhere able to touch, see or feel aught but water.” At the height of her mystical experiences, she could exclaim: “My being is God, not by simple participation but by a true transformation of my being.”"

"In our opinion, celibacy is about the Eucharist,"

"Witness to the presence of God in the world to counter groups and strong forces which openly try to destroy the idea of Jesus Christ in the world."

"The Pope would have an easier job than the President of the United States in adopting a change of course. He has no Congress alongside him as a legislative body nor a Supreme Court as a judiciary. He is absolute head of government, legislator and supreme judge in the church. If he wanted to, he could authorize contraception over night, permit the marriage of priests, make possible the ordination of women and allow eucharistic fellowship with this Protestant churches. What would a Pope do who acted in the spirit of Obama?"

"None were admitted to baptism, or the Eucharist, unless they had taken an oath against having any children."

"Because this is so-- because of the great work done and the terrible suffering which it entails-- there is this special department of the government of the world, and the duty of its officials is to look after every woman in the time of her suffering, and give her such help and strength as her karma allows. As we have said, the World-Mother has at her command vast hosts of angelic beings, and at the birth of every child one of these is always present as her representative. To every celebration of the Holy Eucharist comes an Angel of the Presence, who is in effect a thought-form of the Christ Himself-- the form through which He endorses and ratifies the Priest' s act of consecration; and so it is absolutely true that, though the Christ is one and indivisible, He is nevertheless simultaneously present upon many thousands of altars. In something the same way... the World-Mother herself is present in and through her representative at the bedside of every suffering mother. Many women have seen her under such conditions, and many who have not been privileged to see have yet felt the help and the strength which she outpours."

"Isolation is not a new situation for Japanese Christians, it was like that even at the time of persecutions: even then they could not meet in churches, but they carried on faith in families. Today faced with the threat of the coronavirus and the impossibility of celebrating the Eucharist from a liturgical point of view, Christians, once again, are showing that faith can be equally lived in a profound way."

"Thousands of communities meet on Sunday not for the Eucharist but for a service of the Word. We cannot allow this situation to continue. If the faithful and the priests become used to this wound in our faith life, they will give up looking for solutions. We vehemently oppose other distortions of our faith; therefore we must reject this one as well."

"In the past, some media has tried to portray this effort as inimical to the ecumenical effort, and that cannot be further from the truth. For one thing, Anglicanorum coetibus was a generous, pastoral response by Pope Benedict XVI to groups of people who were making a direct request of the Holy See. It is also ecumenically significant in that it demonstrates, perhaps for the first time, that corporate, Eucharistic unity is possible in a way that does not simply assimilate. The ecumenical principle that informs Anglicanorum coetibus is that unity in the profession of Catholic faith allows for a vibrant diversity in the expression of that same faith. That is, to my mind, exactly what ecumenical dialogues have been building towards."

"For the evangelical left, those who suffer largely exist as mechanisms for others’ salvation, but not as beings with consciences of their own—or more precisely, they are allowed to have their own conscience if and only if it fits into their salvation model. Else, they can be considered as corrupted. The black man loses his “blackness,” which is a state of grace and nothing to do with skin color. Clarence Thomas isn’t “really” black but Bill Clinton is, in the same way that the Eucharist literally becomes the body of Christ."

"It has become more evident that the celebration of the Eucharist is truly the culmination and source of all the life and mission of the Christian communities, which are called to live and transmit the message of hope and peace of the Gospel from generation to generation."

"It is the Eucharist that invites us to be part of the mission of Christ. We need life in the Sydney Church to flourish."

"Many of the faithful believe Holy Communion leads to personal sanctification and transformation of attitudes and engenders responsiveness to the needs of others... for many others there is a disparity between what they believe and how they live."

"One of the greatest problems in present-day Eucharistic celebration is the temptation to abandon the traditional explanations without proposing appropriate substitutions. It was easy to demolish the past, but explanations have not been suggested that might last longer. The solution of course is not to continue with the guidelines of the past, and beyond renewing exterior forms, we must add new vital sap. The form can change or remain the same, what is important is to have a new justification, with greater vigor and support."

"The things, good Lord, that I pray for, give me thy grace to labour for. Amen."

"Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth."

"What will convert America and save the world? My answer is prayer. What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in Holy Hours of prayer."

"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."

"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 (during my Holy Hour of Adoration)."

"It was a source of great joy to pass these three weeks not only "sub Petro" but "cum Petro". Pope Benedict was with us for most of the time, listening with arefuly and creating a friendly atmosphere amongst the Synod fathers; that's very important."

"People who say this cracker is literally and physically the body of their god and that I'm doing this great act of heresy and sacrilege and horror -- even though I didn't actually do anything to it -- is disturbing. It's like discovering there are witch doctors lurking in your community and they've been doing weird practices."

"If I were tied to the letter of the Scriptures and rigid dogma, I believe I could not have painted these profoundly felt paintings about the Eucharist and the 'Pentecost' [religious paintings, he made c. 1909-11) I had to be artistically free - not have God before me. like a steely Assyrian ruler, but God in me, hot and holy like Christ's love."

"Our faith is counter-cultural to the American ideal of individualism. We are a part of the universality founded in Christ and thus a part of a larger, single family-the people of God. The care of our common home does not fall in step with individualism. God asks us to think about ourselves in relationship to God and thus in relationship to our immediate family and our extended family throughout the world."

"Inevitably, this period of lockdown will have repercussions on the lives and the faith of our Christians, both positive and negative. There will be a before and an after. For some, being unable to take part in the Eucharistic celebration will deepen their desire and thirst for God and for union and communion with him and with their community. For lukewarm Christians, however, this could be the end."

"In most cultures in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, dancing groups in traditional costume is used in the most important celebrations of the people’s life. These dances can also express the joy, happiness and unity of the people during Mass. There is no better way to build Christian community through the Holy Eucharist, the center of the Church."

"Peckham's visitation of Lincoln diocese brought him to Oxford on 30 Oct, 1284, when he condemned certain erroneous opinions in grammar, logic, and natural philosophy, which, though censured by his Dominican predecessor, Kilwardby, had now [been] revived. ...Chief among them was the vexed question of the 'form' of the body of Christ, which involved the received doctrine of the Eucharist. The doctrines in question were maintained by the Dominican rivals of Peckham's own order, and their condemnation appeared to impugn the reputation of the Dominican doctor St. Thomas Aquinas. ...The prior [of the Dominicans], he said, had misrepresented him; he was actuated by no hostility to the Dominicans, nor to the honoured memory of St. Thomas; he had no intention to unduly favour his own order, and his censure was supported by the action of his predecessor."

"John Peckham,"

"Faced with the present situation in Spain the Lord calls us Catholics to suffer and be scorned because we are Christians, Christian religious sentiment is attacked and ridiculed by certain media."

"Celebrating the Eucharist means celebrating who we are, always living our priestly identity, our ministry or service of making the Lord's Supper present. What greatness we possess! And what a responsibility! Are we astounded by this self-giving and this responsibility before Christ and the Church? At least we should be."

"We think that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the life of the Church and for this we do not abandon its essential importance."

"Invisibly our Eucharistic celebrations gather a still absent people, one of those who are searching for God in the righteousness of their hearts. For a particular Church, the way of living the Eucharist cannot be separated from its concrete history with the people she was given to by the Lord."

"If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Holy Communion as long as this situation persists. This norm is not at all a punishment or a discrimination against the divorced and remarried, but rather expresses an objective situation that of itself renders impossible the reception of Holy Communion: '... If these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage'."

"I like to think, especially during these days when the whole Church is as it were focused on the Eucharistic mystery, that precisely there, on the altar, Cardinal Caprio's life and ministry - the various posts to which the diplomatic service of the Holy See took him - would have found their deepest point of convergence."

"We have to let God's love break through the hard crust of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age. Only then can we let it ignite our imagination and shape our deepest desires. That is why prayer is so important: daily prayer, private prayer in the quiet of our hearts and before the Blessed Sacrament, and liturgical prayer in the heart of the Church."

"There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world."

"Enough hosts should be consecrated to allow for the Communion of the faithful on Good Friday. The altar of repose for the Blessed Sacrament should be carefully constructed, but need not be overly ornate."

"The rubrics call for the altar to be stripped and the removal or veiling of crosses after the liturgy in preparation for Good Friday. Veils should be violet in color. If the font is to be emptied, this may happen at this time also. While the church need not be stripped of furniture and art, generally simplicity should be the norm for Good Friday. Because people remain to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, any work on the environment should be done in silence, particularly if the place of repose is within earshot....The Blessed Sacrament is brought into the sanctuary for Holy Communion along with a fair linen, corporal and candles. These are returned to the altar of repose and the sacristy, respectively after Communion."

"The joy of these faithful to frequently receive the Eucharist, or to celebrate the Marian procession on the river, is priceless."

"In the Eucharist Jesus Christ nourishes us with his Body and his Blood, allowing us to share in the eternal fullness of divine life, allowing us to sit at table with Him at the Supper for which we rejoice for ever with the knowledge and love of God, communion of life with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints, and with all those whom we have loved on this earth and whom Jesus saved with his Cross"

"We have to make sure that we always recognize that we don't own the sacraments, the sacraments are the work of Christ. It is he who comes to us ... and it's his grace that takes precedence over everything else. Therefore we should see in each of those encounters with Christ in the sacraments a sacred experience even beyond our comprehension. And the one, of course, that's the supreme of everything is the Eucharist, because that's when Christ sacrificed on Calvary. We're fed with the same food that the disciples were fed at the Last Supper, and the same blood of the covenant from the cross is given to us. So again, it's Christ who is there, Christ offering the sacrifice. We are with him but it is he who does it all, it is he who feeds us."

"All my sermons are prepared in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. As recreation is most pleasant and profitable in the sun, so homiletic creativity is best nourished before the Eucharist. The most brilliant ideas come from meeting God face to face. The Holy Spirit that presided at the Incarnation is the best atmosphere for illumination. Pope John Paul II keeps a small desk or writing pad near him whenever he is in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament; and I have done this all my life — I am sure for the same reason he does, because a lover always works better when the beloved is with him."

"There is nothing wrong with a church being small and simple. As long as we can pray in it and celebrate the Eucharist. Above all, it is important to have a temple of God also in our hearts too, adorned with prayer and good works, if we really want to be children worthy of His name."