The Sacraments (St Ephraem the Syrian)

  In your sacraments we welcome you every day and receive you in our bodies. Make us worthy to experience within us the resurrection for which we hope. By the grace of baptism we conceal within our bodies the treasure of your divine life. This treasure increases as we eat at the table of your sacraments. Let us rejoice in your grace. We have within us, Lord, a memorial of you, which we receive at your spiritual table; may we possess the full reality in the life to come.

  Let us appreciate the great beauty that is ours through the spiritual beauty that your immortal will arouses in our mortal nature.

(St Ephraem the Syrian)

All are priests and victims

Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.

  How marvellous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives: the priest who immolates cannot kill. Truly it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain and blood is offered without being shed.

  The Apostle says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven.

  Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

 --Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon

可是讓我們聽一聽保祿使徒請求什麼，他說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體。」他藉著這樣的請求，使眾人升高到祭司職的頂峰：「奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」

基督徒的祭司職真是前所未聞的！他本身是祭品，又是祭司；他不必在他以外尋找、他該奉獻給天主的祭品；他個人在他內就擁有為他自己獻給天主的祭品；祭品常是同一個，而祭司也是同一的；被宰殺的犧牲仍然生活，祭司也不會死亡，因為他該獻祭。

這真是令人驚異的祭獻：肉身被奉獻，而不需要有肉身；血被奉獻，而不必流血。保祿說：「我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，當作生活的祭品。」

弟兄們，這祭獻是以基督的祭獻作典範，他祭獻了他的身體，為的是將生命賜與世人；他確實使他的肉體成為生活的祭品，因為他曾被殺死、而仍然活著。在這祭品中，死亡成為代價，而祭品仍然存在；祭品依舊活著，而死亡已被懲罰。因此殉道者因死亡而誕生；結束了生命時，便開始生活；雖被殺害而仍然活著。人們以為他們在世上已經絕跡，他們卻在天上閃爍發光。

「弟兄們，我憑天主的仁慈請求你們，要奉獻你們的身體，作為生活的、聖潔的祭品。」這正是先知所唱的歌：「犧牲和素祭，都非你所喜，你便給我造了一個身體。」

人哪，你要成為天主的祭品和祭司；你不要失去崇高的天主賦與你的恩惠；你要穿上聖德的長袍，束上貞潔的腰帶。願基督作你的頭帕；願印在你額上的十字時常保護你；把天主知識的奧秘放在你心裡；要不斷的焚燒你祈禱的馨香；緊握聖神的劍；使你的心成為一座祭壇。這樣，把你的身體毫無畏懼的獻于天主，作為祭品吧！

--金言聖伯多祿主教講道集

Why we say the Church is holy

The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

--Venerable Pope Paul VI

The Importance Of Eucharistic Adoration -- hundreds of reasons from Popes through the centuries

Click on this link: http://www.stmonicaadoration.org/Popes.htm

Bringing back Eucharistic adoration

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT  XVI
Holy Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
Basilica of Saint John Lateran
Thursday, 7 June 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This evening I would like to meditate with you on two interconnected aspects of the Eucharistic Mystery: worship of the Eucharist and its sacred nature. It is important to reflect on them once again to preserve them from incomplete visions of the Mystery itself, such as those encountered in the recent past.

First of all, a reflection on the importance of Eucharistic worship and, in particular, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We shall experience it this evening, after Mass, before the procession, during it and at its conclusion. A unilateral interpretation of the Second Vatican Council penalized this dimension, in practice restricting the Eucharist to the moment of its celebration. Indeed it was very important to recognize the centrality of the celebration in which the Lord summons his people, gathers it round the dual table of the Word and of the Bread of life, nourishes and unites it with himself in the offering of the Sacrifice.

Of course, this evaluation of the liturgical assembly in which the Lord works his mystery of communion and brings it about still applies; but it must be put back into the proper balance. In fact — as often happens — in order to emphasize one aspect one ends by sacrificing another. In this case the correct accentuation of the celebration of the Eucharist has been to the detriment of adoration as an act of faith and prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus, really present in the Sacrament of the Altar.

This imbalance has also had repercussions on the spiritual life of the faithful. In fact, by concentrating the entire relationship with the Eucharistic Jesus in the sole moment of Holy Mass one risks emptying the rest of existential time and space of his presence. This makes ever less perceptible the meaning of Jesus’ constant presence in our midst and with us, a presence that is tangible, close, in our homes, as the “beating Heart” of the city, of the country, and of the area, with its various expressions and activities. The sacrament of Christ’s Charity must permeate the whole of daily life.

Actually it is wrong to set celebration and adoration against each other, as if they were competing. Exactly the opposite is true: worship of the Blessed Sacrament is, as it were, the spiritual “context” in which the community can celebrate the Eucharist well and in truth. Only if it is preceded, accompanied and followed by this inner attitude of faith and adoration can the liturgical action express its full meaning and value. The encounter with Jesus in Holy Mass is truly and fully brought about when the community can recognize that in the Sacrament he dwells in his house, waits for us, invites us to his table, then, after the assembly is dismissed, stays with us, with his discreet and silent presence, and accompanies us with his intercession, continuing to gather our spiritual sacrifices and offer them to the Father.

In this regard I am pleased to highlight the experience we shall be having together this evening too. At the moment of Adoration, we are all equal, kneeling before the Sacrament of Love. The common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood are brought together in Eucharistic worship. It is a very beautiful and significant experience which we have had several times in St Peter’s Basilica, and also in the unforgettable Vigils with young people — I recall, for example, those in Cologne, London, Zagreb and Madrid. It is clear to all that these moments of Eucharistic Vigil prepare for the celebration of the Holy Mass, they prepare hearts for the encounter so that it will be more fruitful.

To be all together in prolonged silence before the Lord present in his Sacrament is one of the most genuine experiences of our being Church, which is accompanied complementarily by the celebration of the Eucharist, by listening to the word of God, by singing and by approaching the table of the Bread of Life together. Communion and contemplation cannot be separated, they go hand in hand. If I am truly to communicate with another person I must know him, I must be able to be in silence close to him, to listen to him and look at him lovingly. True love and true friendship are always nourished by the reciprocity of looks, of intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration, so that the encounter may be lived profoundly and personally rather than superficially. And, unfortunately, if this dimension is lacking, sacramental communion itself may become a superficial gesture on our part.

Instead, in true communion, prepared for by the conversation of prayer and of life, we can address words of confidence to the Lord, such as those which rang out just now in the Responsorial Psalm: “O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. / You have loosed my bonds./ I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving /and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116[115]:16-17).

I would now like to move on briefly to the second aspect: the sacred nature of the Eucharist. Here too so we have heard in the recent past of a certain misunderstanding of the authentic message of Sacred Scripture. The Christian newness with regard to worship has been influenced by a certain secularist mentality of the 1960s and 70s. It is true, and this is still the case, that the centre of worship is now no longer in the ancient rites and sacrifices, but in Christ himself, in his person, in his life, in his Paschal Mystery. However it must not be concluded from this fundamental innovation that the sacred no longer exists, but rather that it has found fulfilment in Jesus Christ, divine Love incarnate.

The Letter to the Hebrews, which we heard this evening in the Second Reading, speaks to us precisely of the newness of the priesthood of Christ, “high priest of the good things that have come” (Heb 9:11), but does not say that the priesthood is finished. Christ “is the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb 9:15), established in his blood which purifies our “conscience from dead works” (Heb 9:14). He did not abolish the sacred but brought it to fulfillment, inaugurating a new form of worship, which is indeed fully spiritual but which, however, as long as we are journeying in time, still makes use of signs and rites, which will exist no longer only at the end, in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will no longer be any temple (cf. Rev 21:22). Thanks to Christ, the sacred is truer, more intense and, as happens with the Commandments, also more demanding! Ritual observance does not suffice but purification of the heart and the involvement of life is required.

I would also like to stress that the sacred has an educational function and its disappearance inevitably impoverishes culture and especially the formation of the new generations. If, for example, in the name of a faith that is secularized and no longer in need of sacred signs, these Corpus Christi processions through the city were to be abolished, the spiritual profile of Rome would be “flattened out”, and our personal and community awareness would be weakened.

Or let us think of a mother or father who in the name of a desacralized faith, deprived their children of all religious rituals: in reality they would end by giving a free hand to the many substitutes that exist in the consumer society, to other rites and other signs that could more easily become idols.

God, our Father, did not do this with humanity: he sent his Son into the world not to abolish, but to give fulfilment also to the sacred. At the height of this mission, at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood, the Memorial of his Paschal Sacrifice. By so doing he replaced the ancient sacrifices with himself, but he did so in a rite which he commanded the Apostles to perpetuate, as a supreme sign of the true Sacred One who is he himself. With this faith, dear brothers and sisters, let us celebrate the Eucharistic Mystery today and every day and adore it as the centre of our life and the heart of the world. Amen.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Eucharist: Discipleship, Communion, Sharing

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

in the Gospel we heard, there is an expression of Jesus' that always strikes me: «You give them something to eat "(Lk 9:13). Starting from this sentence, I will allow myself be guided by three words: discipleship, communion, sharing.

1. First of all: who are those to be fed? The answer is found at the beginning of the Gospel: the crowds, the multitude. Jesus is in the midst of people, he welcomes them, speaks to them, cures them, he shows them the mercy of God; from among them he chooses Twelve Apostles to be with Him and immerse themselves, like Him, in the concrete situations of the world. And the people  follow Him, they listen to Him, because Jesus speaks and acts in a new way, with the authority of someone who is genuine and consistent, who speaks and acts with truth, who gives the hope that comes from God, who is the revelation of the Face of a God who is love. And the people joyfully bless God.

Tonight we are the crowd of the Gospel, we seek to follow Jesus to listen to him, to enter into communion with him in the Eucharist, to accompany him and so that he may accompany us. Let us ask ourselves: how do I follow I Jesus? Jesus speaks in silence in the mystery of the Eucharist and each time reminds us that following him means coming out of ourselves and making our life not our own, but a gift to him and to the others.

2. Let's go further: where does Jesus' invitation come from, for the disciples themselves to feed the multitude? It stems from two factors: first of all from the crowd that, following Jesus, finds itself outdoors, away from the towns, while evening is approaching, and then from the disciples' concern to ask Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that they can go into the neighboring territories to find food and lodging (cf. Lk 9:12). Faced with the needs of the crowd, this is the disciples' solution: every man for himself; dismiss the crowd! Every man for himself; dismiss the crowd! How often do we Christians have this temptation! We do not care about other's needs, and dismiss them with a pitiful: "May God help you", or with a not so pitiful: "Good luck", and if I don't see you anymore ... But Jesus' solution goes in another direction, one that surprises his disciples: "You yourselves give them something to eat." But how can we feed a multitude? "We only have five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people» (Lk 9:13). But Jesus is not discouraged: he asks the disciples to make the people sit in communities of fifty people, raises his eyes to heaven, recites the blessing, breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples to distribute them (cf. Lk 9:16).

It is a moment of profound communion: the crowd, quenched by the word of the Lord, is now nourished by his bread of life. And all of them were filled, notes the Evangelist (cf. Lk 9:17). This evening, we too are around the Lord's table, the table of the Eucharistic sacrifice, in which he gives us once again his body, he makes present the one sacrifice of the cross. It is in listening to his Word, in nourishing ourselves on his body and his blood, that he makes us go from a multitude to being a community, from anonymity to communion. The Eucharist is the sacrament of communion, that makes us come out from our individualism to live together our discipleship, our faith in him. Then we should all ask ourselves before the Lord: how do I live the Eucharist? Do I live it anonymously or as a moment of true communion with the Lord, but also with all our brothers and sisters who share this same table? What are our Eucharistic celebrations like?

3. One last element: what generates the multiplication of the loaves? The answer lies in Jesus' invitation to the disciples "You give... ", "give ", share. What do the disciples share? What little they have: five loaves and two fishes. But it is precisely those loaves and fishes in the hands of the Lord that feed the whole crowd. And it is precisely these disciples, distressed when faced with the inability of their means, the poverty of what they can offer, who get the people to sit down and who distribute – trusting Jesus' word - the loaves and fishes that feed the crowd. And this tells us that in the Church, but also in society, one keyword that we must not fear is 'solidarity', i.e. to put at God's disposal what we have, our humble capacities, because only in sharing, in the gift, will our lives be fruitful, will they bear fruit. Solidarity: a word frowned upon by the worldly spirit!

Tonight, once again, the Lord distributes for us the bread which is his Body, he makes himself gift. And we, too, experience the "solidarity of God" with man, a solidarity that never runs out, a solidarity that never ceases to amaze us: God is near us, in the sacrifice of the cross he stoops to enter into the darkness of death to give us his life, defeating evil, selfishness and death. Jesus also this evening gives himself to us in the Eucharist, he shares our same journey, indeed, he makes himself food, the real food that sustains our lives even in times when the road becomes tough, the obstacles slow our steps. And in the Eucharist, the Lord makes us travel his path, that of service, of sharing, of gift, and what little we have, what little we are, if shared, becomes wealth, because the power of God, which is that of love, descends into our poverty to transform it.

Let us ask ourselves then this evening, worshiping Christ really present in the Eucharist: do I let myself be transformed by Him? Do I let the Lord who gives himself to me, guide me to come out more and more from behind my little fence, to go out and not be afraid to give, to share, to love him and others?

Brothers and sisters: discipleship, communion, sharing. Let us pray that the participation in the Eucharist leads us to always follow the Lord every day, to be instruments of communion, to share what we are with him and with our neighbor. Then our lives will be truly fruitful. Amen.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

--Pope Francis, 30 May 2013
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-homily-for-the-solemnity-of-corpus-christi

教宗方濟各在基督聖體聖血節的彌撒講道中提及耶穌說過的一句話「你們給他們吃的罷！」(路加福音 9:13)，從中讓他就以下三點反思:　作基督門徒、共融、分享。

1. 首先，耶穌讓哪些人吃飽呢？答案在福音開端：群眾。耶穌在人群當中，祂歡迎他們，跟他們說話，治癒他們，向他們展示天主的慈悲；他從人群中揀選了十二位宗徒，讓他們深深的進入世界上不同的處境中。人們跟隨祂，聽祂說話，因為耶穌以一個新的方式說話和行動，祂有一種由衷而一致的權柄，以真理說話和行動，給人一份來自天主的希望，反映出天主的面貌——就是愛。

今晚，我們就是福音中的群眾，我們想跟隨耶穌，聆聽祂的說話，在聖體中與祂共融，陪伴祂，讓祂陪伴我們。讓我們問自己：我是怎樣跟隨耶穌？耶穌在聖體的奧秘中以靜默說話，每一次都提醒我們，跟隨祂就是跨越自我，令我們不為自己生活，而是為祂和他人把生命獻上。

2. 再深入一點看：　耶穌是怎樣邀請門徒讓群聚吃飽？這是由於兩個原因：首先，所有跟隨耶穌的群眾在荒野，遠離市區，天快要黑，門徒出於關心，叫耶穌遣散他們，讓他們往四周村莊田舍裡去投宿尋食(路加福音 9:12)。面對群眾的需要，這就是門徒的解決方案：　每個人只為自己，遣散他們吧！我們基督徒是否經常有這樣的試探？我們不理會別人的需要，用一句話：　「願天主幫助你」，或「祝你好運」把人打發走。但耶穌的方式卻很不同，令他的門徒感驚奇：「你們給他們吃的罷！」但我們怎能令數千人吃飽？「我們不過只有五個餅和兩條魚，除非我們親自去給這一切人購買食物。」(路加福音 9:13) 耶穌叫群眾分成五十人一組，望著天祝福食物，擘開遞給門徒，叫他們擺在群眾前。(路加福音 9:16)

這是一個共融的時刻：那些群眾，聽過耶穌的聖言，現在也被祂生命的食糧所滋養。所有人都吃飽了。這一晚，我們也在耶穌的飯桌前，祂聖體奉獻的桌前，祂再一次給我們祂的身體。透過聆聽祂的聖言，讓祂的聖體聖血滋養我們，我們由一群人轉變成一個團體，由互不相識到進入共融。聖體是一件共融的聖事，讓我們由個人主義到與祂一起作祂的門徒。我們應在主前問自己：我怎樣在聖體中生活？我是否和所有兄弟姊妹與基督共融？

3. 最後一點：是什麼令五餅二魚增加？答案在於耶穌對門徒的邀請「你們給….」，「給」，分享。門徒分享了什麼？他們只有五餅二魚。但正正就是這些餅和魚，在耶穌手中，令五千人吃飽。正正就是這些門徒，為他們自己沒有能力而懊惱時，他們把他們的貧乏獻上，他們令群眾坐下，派餅，他們相信耶穌的話。這讓我們知道在教會和社會，有一點我們要注意，團結一致，就是把我們所有的交給天主為祂所用，我們僅有的；因為只有透過分享，我們的生活才能結果實。

今晚，耶穌再一次把祂的身體分給我們，祂把自己當成禮物獻上。天主在我們身旁，在十字架的犧牲，祂進入死亡的黑暗，給我們生命，戰勝邪惡、自私和死亡。祂今晚也在聖體獻出自己。祂和我們一起在旅途上；祂令自己成為食糧，真正的食糧，即使在困境中，仍維持我們的生命。在聖體中，耶穌使我們走祂的道路，那服務、分享、獻上的道路。我們有的很少，但只要分享，因為天主的大能，就會變得豐盛。

讓我們在今晚問自己：我是否願意被祂改造？我是否讓祂指引我去跨越自己，不害怕付出、和人分享、愛祂和別人呢？

兄弟姊妹：作基督門徒、共融、分享。讓我們祈禱，領受聖體使我們時刻跟隨主耶穌，成為共融的工具，跟祂和鄰人分享。這樣我們的生命就會結果實。亞孟。

--http://inspire.fll.cc/pope-francis/pope-francis-enter-into-communion-with-jesus-in-the-eucharist/

Eucharist points to past sorrow and future joy and fills the priest's life with meaning

Thus the bread of the Eucharist is for us at once the sign of the cross and the sign of God's great and joyful harvest. It looks back to the cross, to the grain of wheat that died. But it also looks forward in anticipation to God's great wedding feast to which many will come from east and west, from north and south (cf Mt 8:11); indeed, this wedding feast has already begun here in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, where men and women of all races and classes can be God's happy guests at table.

It is the priest's finest and sublimest ministry that he can be the servant of this holy meal, that he may transform and distribute this bread of unity. For him too this bread will have a double meaning. It will--to start with--remind him too of the cross. At the end he too must somehow be God's grain of wheat: he cannot be content with giving only words and external actions, he must add a piece of his heart's blood--himself. His fate is tied to God. What that means we have heard in the epistle. It means many kinds of external contestation and failure, the consciousness of not having really been the grain of wheat, and perhaps this is indeed the most oppressive and difficult of the lot, the realisation of how pathetic what one has done is measured against the immensity of one's task. Those who know this will understand why the priest says before the Preface every day: 'Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.' And he will let many kinds of thoughtless talk pass and instead hearken to the complete urgency of this summons to share in bearing this sacred divine burden.

But even for the priest the grain of wheat does not simply point to the cross. For him too it is a sign of God's joy. To be able to be the grain of wheat, the servant of the divine grain of wheat Jesus Christ, can at the same time make man glad in the depths of his heart. In the midst of weakness, the triumph of grace is fulfilled, as once again we have heard in the epistle from Paul, who experienced the immense joy of God precisely in his wretchedness. Not without embarrassment does the priest learn how through his weak and petty words people can smile in the last moment of their life; how through what he says people find meaning again in the ocean of meaninglessness, meaning on the basis of which they are able to live; and he learns with gratitude how through his ministry people discover the glory of God. He learns how through him God does great things, through his very weakness, and is full of joy that God has found someone as mean as him worthy of such mercy. And in learning this he becomes at the same time aware that God's joyful wedding feast, his harvest of a hundredfold, is not just a promise in the future but has already begun among us in this bread that he is empowered to distribute, to transform. And he knows that to be able to be a priest is at once the greatest demand and the greatest gift.

So we can well understand that today the Church allows the priest to pray after holy communion once again what he is able to say every day in the Office with the psalmist of the Old Covenant: 'And I will come to the altar of God, the God of my joy' (Ps 43[42]:4). We want to ask God that he will always let something of the splendour of this joy, if it is necessary, fall on our life; that he may give the radiance of this joy ever more deeply and purely to this priest who today for the first time comes before the altar of God; that he will still continually shine upon him when he does so for the last time, when he comes before the altar of eternity in which God shall be the joy of our eternal life, our never-ending youth. Amen.

--Card Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Homily at a priest's first Mass, 1962, in Ministers of Your Joy, pp 20-23

Tolkien on frequent communion

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, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on 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, which every man’s heart desires.

The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise.

Frequency is of the highest effect.

Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.

Also I can recommend this as an exercise (alas! only too easy to find opportunity for): make your Communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children—from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn—open-necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to Communion with them (and pray for them).

It will be just the same (or better than that) as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people.

It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the Five Thousand—after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come.”

--JR Tolien, The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings, p 219.

Tolkien on the Pope and the Eucharist

I myself am convinced by the Petrine claims, nor looking around the world does there seem much doubt which (if Christianity is true) is the True Church, the temple of the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming and re-arising.

But for me that Church of which the Pope is the acknowledged head on earth has as chief claim that it is the one that has (and still does) ever defended the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honour, and put (as Christ plainly intended) in the prime place.

'Feed my sheep' was His last charge to St. Peter; and since His words are always first to be understood literally, I suppose them to refer primarily to the Bread of Life. It was against this that the W. European revolt (or Reformation) was really launched—'the blasphemous fable of the Mass'—and faith/works a mere red herring.

--JR Tolkien, Man and Myth, p 193.

What authentic Christianity is

Christianity is not simply a matter of following commandments; it is about living a new life, being in Christ, thinking and acting like Christ, and being transformed by the love of Christ! But this new life needs to be nourished daily by hearing God’s word, prayer, sharing in the sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist, and the exercise of charity. God must be the centre of our lives!

-- Pope Francis, 10 April 2013

The power of the words of Consecration

We see that grace can accomplish more than nature, yet so far we have been considering instances of what grace can do through a prophet’s blessing. If the blessing of a human being had power even to change nature, what do we say of God’s action in the consecration itself, in which the very words of the Lord and Saviour are effective? If the words of Elijah had power even to bring down fire from heaven, will not the words of Christ have power to change the natures of the elements? You have read that in the creation of the whole world "he spoke and they came to be; he commanded and they were created." If Christ could by speaking create out of nothing what did not yet exist, can we say that his words are unable to change existing things into something they previously were not? It is no lesser feat to create new natures for things than to change their existing natures.

  What need is there for argumentation? Let us take what happened in the case of Christ himself and construct the truth of this mystery from the mystery of the incarnation. Did the birth of the Lord Jesus from Mary come about in the course of nature? If we look at nature we regularly find that conception results from the union of man and woman. It is clear then that the conception by the Virgin was above and beyond the course of nature. And this body that we make present is the body born of the Virgin. Why do you expect to find in this case that nature takes its ordinary course in regard to the body of Christ when the Lord himself was born of the Virgin in a manner above and beyond the order of nature? This is indeed the true flesh of Christ, which was crucified and buried. This is then in truth the sacrament of his flesh.

  The Lord Jesus himself declares: "This is my body." Before the blessing contained in these words a different thing is named; after the consecration a body is indicated. He himself speaks of his blood. Before the consecration something else is spoken of; after the consecration blood is designated. And you say: “Amen,” that is: “It is true.” What the mouth utters, let the mind within acknowledge; what the word says, let the heart ratify.

 So the Church, in response to grace so great, exhorts her children, exhorts her neighbours, to hasten to these mysteries: "Neighbours," she says, "come and eat; brethren, drink and be filled." In another passage the Holy Spirit has made clear to you what you are to eat, what you are to drink. "Taste," the prophet says, "and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who puts his trust in him." Christ is in that sacrament, for it is the body of Christ. It is therefore not bodily food but spiritual. Thus the Apostle too says, speaking of its symbol: "Our fathers ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink. For the body of God is spiritual; the body of Christ is that of a divine spirit, for Christ is a spirit." We read: "The spirit before our face is Christ the Lord." And in the letter of Saint Peter we have this: "Christ died for you." Finally, it is this food that gives strength to our hearts, this drink "which gives joy to the heart of man," as the prophet has written.

--St Augustine, Treatise on the Mysteries

WE ARE GRAINS OF WHEAT

Without illusions, without ideological utopias, we walk the streets of the world, bringing within us the Body of the Lord, like the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation. With the humble awareness that we are simple grains of wheat, we cherish the firm conviction that the love of God, incarnate in Christ, is stronger than evil, violence and death. We know that God is preparing for all people new heavens and new earth where peace and justice prevail - and by faith we glimpse the new world, that is our true home.

Also this evening as the sun sets on our beloved city of Rome, we set out again on this path: with us is Jesus in the Eucharist, the Risen One, who said: "I am with you always, until the end of world "(Mt 28:20). Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you for your loyalty, which sustains our hope. Stay with us, because the evening comes. "Jesus, good shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us; feed us and guard us. Grant that we find happiness in the land of the living". Amen.

--Benedict XVI, Homily, Corpus Christi Mass and Procession, 2011

COMMUNION WITH CHRIST BRINGS ABOUT COMMUNION WITH OTHERS

Indeed, precisely because it is Christ who, in Eucharistic communion, transforms us into Him, our individuality, in this encounter, is opened up, freed from its self-centeredness and placed in the Person of Jesus, who in turn is immersed in the Trinitarian communion. Thus, while the Eucharist unites us to Christ, we open ourselves to others making us members one of another: we are no longer divided, but one thing in Him. Eucharistic communion unites me to the person next to me, and with whom I might not even have a good relationship, but also to my brothers and sisters who are far away, in every corner of the world. Thus the deep sense of social presence of the Church is derived from the Eucharist, as evidenced by the great social saints, who have always been great Eucharistic souls. Those who recognize Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, recognize their brother who suffers, who is hungry and thirsty, who is a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned, and they are attentive to every person, committing themselves, in a concrete way, to those who are in need. So from the gift of Christ's love comes our special responsibility as Christians in building a cohesive, just and fraternal society. Especially in our time when globalization makes us increasingly dependent upon each other, Christianity can and must ensure that this unity will not be built without God, without true Love. This would give way to confusion and individualism, the oppression of some against others. The Gospel has always aimed at the unity of the human family, a unity not imposed from above, or by ideological or economic interests, but from a sense of responsibility towards each other, because we identify ourselves as members of the same body, the body of Christ, because we have learned and continually learn from the Sacrament of the Altar that sharing, love is the path of true justice.

--Benedict XVI, Homily, Corpus Christi Mass and Procession, 2011

GIVE THEM YOURSELF ONCE MORE

Guide us on the paths of our history! Show the Church and her Pastors again and again the right path! Look at suffering humanity, cautiously seeking a way through so much doubt; look upon the physical and mental hunger that torments it! Give men and women bread for body and soul! Give them work! Give them light! Give them yourself! Purify and sanctify all of us! Make us understand that only through participation in your Passion, through "yes" to the cross, to self-denial, to the purifications that you impose upon us, our lives can mature and arrive at true fulfilment. Gather us together from all corners of the earth. Unite your Church, unite wounded humanity! Give us your salvation! Amen.

--Benedict XVI, Homily, Corpus Christi Mass and Procession, 15 June 2006

THE FUTURE AND THE HOLY SACRIFICE

The priest is the man of the future: it is he who has taken seriously Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col 3: 1). What he does on earth is in the order of the means ordered to the last things. The Mass is this one point of union between the means and the End because it already enables us to contemplate, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of the One we shall adore for eternity. The holy Curé's simple, concentrated sentences on the Eucharist help us perceive more clearly the riches of this unique moment in the day when we experience an encounter that is life-giving for ourselves and for each one of the faithful. "The happiness that exists in saying Mass", he wrote, "will only be properly understood in Heaven" (Nodet, page 104).

I therefore encourage you to strengthen your faith and that of your faithful in the sacrament you celebrate, which is the source of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest must feel the same joy (as the Apostles) in seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (ibid.). In giving thanks for what you are and for what you do, I repeat to you: "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church" (Homily, Mass on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, 13 September 2008).

VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS [ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]

PRIESTS, CONFESSION, EUCHARIST

Dear priests, think too of the extreme diversity of the ministries you exercise in the service of the Church. Think of the great number of Masses you have celebrated or will celebrate, making Christ really present on the altar each time. Think of the innumerable absolutions you have given and will give, enabling a sinner to be forgiven. Then you perceive the infinite fruitfulness of the sacrament of Orders. In the space of a moment your hands, your lips became the hands and lips of God. You bear Christ within you; through grace, you have entered the Holy Trinity.

The priest is the man of the future: it is he who has taken seriously Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col 3: 1). What he does on earth is in the order of the means ordered to the last things. The Mass is this one point of union between the means and the End because it already enables us to contemplate, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of the One we shall adore for eternity. The holy Curé's simple, concentrated sentences on the Eucharist help us perceive more clearly the riches of this unique moment in the day when we experience an encounter that is life-giving for ourselves and for each one of the faithful. "The happiness that exists in saying Mass", he wrote, "will only be properly understood in Heaven" (Nodet, page 104).

I therefore encourage you to strengthen your faith and that of your faithful in the sacrament you celebrate, which is the source of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest must feel the same joy (as the Apostles) in seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (ibid.). In giving thanks for what you are and for what you do, I repeat to you: "Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church" (Homily, Mass on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, 13 September 2008).

--VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS [ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]

Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming attacks of the devil. Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be powerless against you.

(St John Bosco)

We see that grace can accomplish more than nature, yet so far we have been considering instances of what grace can do through a prophet’s blessing. If the blessing of a human being had power even to change nature, what do we say of God’s action in the consecration itself, in which the very words of the Lord and Saviour are effective? If the words of Elijah had power even to bring down fire from heaven, will not the words of Christ have power to change the natures of the elements? You have read that in the creation of the whole world he spoke and they came to be; he commanded and they were created. If Christ could by speaking create out of nothing what did not yet exist, can we say that his words are unable to change existing things into something they previously were not? It is no lesser feat to create new natures for things than to change their existing natures.

...

The Lord Jesus himself declares: This is my body. Before the blessing contained in these words a different thing is named; after the consecration a body is indicated. He himself speaks of his blood. Before the consecration something else is spoken of; after the consecration blood is designated. And you say: “Amen,” that is: “It is true.” What the mouth utters, let the mind within acknowledge; what the word says, let the heart ratify.

So the Church, in response to grace so great, exhorts her children, exhorts her neighbours, to hasten to these mysteries: Neighbours, she says, come and eat; brethren, drink and be filled. In another passage the Holy Spirit has made clear to you what you are to eat, what you are to drink. Taste, the prophet says, and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who puts his trust in him. Christ is in that sacrament, for it is the body of Christ. It is therefore not bodily food but spiritual. Thus the Apostle too says, speaking of its symbol: Our fathers ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink. For the body of God is spiritual; the body of Christ is that of a divine spirit, for Christ is a spirit. We read: The spirit before our face is Christ the Lord. And in the letter of Saint Peter we have this: Christ died for you. Finally, it is this food that gives strength to our hearts, this drink which gives joy to the heart of man, as the prophet has written.

(From the treatise On the Mysteries by Saint Ambrose, bishop)

TRANSFORM US INTO YOU AND STAY WITH US, LORD!

St John Mary Vianney liked to tell his parishioners: "Come to communion.... It is true that you are not worthy of it, but you need it" (Bernard Nodet, Le curé d'Ars. Sa pensée - Son coeur, éd. Xavier Mappus, Paris 1995, p. 119). With the knowledge of being inadequate because of sin, but needful of nourishing ourselves with the love that the Lord offers us in the Eucharistic sacrament, let us renew this evening our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We must not take this faith for granted! Today we run the risk of secularization creeping into the Church too. It can be translated into formal and empty Eucharistic worship, into celebrations lacking that heartfelt participation that is expressed in veneration and in respect for the liturgy. The temptation to reduce prayer to superficial, hasty moments, letting ourselves be overpowered by earthly activities and concerns, is always strong. When, in a little while, we recite the Our Father, the prayer par excellence, we will say: "Give us this day our daily bread", thinking of course of the bread of each day for us and for all peoples. But this request contains something deeper. The Greek word epioúsios, that we translate as "daily", could also allude to the "super-stantial" bread, the bread "of the world to come". Some Fathers of the Church saw this as a reference to the Eucharist, the bread of eternal life, the new world, that is already given to us in Holy Mass, so that from this moment the future world may begin within us. With the Eucharist, therefore, Heaven comes down to earth, the future of God enters the present and it is as though time were embraced by divine eternity.

Dear brothers and sisters, as happens every year, at the end of Holy Mass the traditional Eucharistic procession will set out and with prayer and hymns we shall raise a unanimous entreaty to the Lord present in the consecrated host. We shall say, on behalf of the entire City: "Stay with us Jesus, make a gift of yourself and give us the bread that nourishes us for eternal life! Free this world from the poison of evil, violence and hatred that pollute consciences, purify it with the power of your merciful love". "And you, Mary, who were the woman "of the Eucharist' throughout your life, help us to walk united towards the heavenly goal, nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, the eternal Bread of life and medicine of divine immortality". Amen!

(Benedict XVI, Corpus Christi Procession, 11 May 2009)

TO BECOME WHAT WE RECEIVE

I address you in particular, dear priests, whom Christ has chosen so that with him you may be able to live your life as a sacrifice of praise for the salvation of the world. Only from union with Jesus can you draw that spiritual fruitfulness which generates hope in your pastoral ministry. St Leo the Great recalls that "our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ aspires to nothing other than to become what we receive" (Sermo 12, De Passione 3, 7, PL 54). If this is true for every Christian it is especially true for us priests. To become the Eucharist! May precisely this be our constant desire and commitment, so that the offering of the Body and Blood of the Lord which we make on the altar may be accompanied by the sacrifice of our existence. Every day, we draw from the Body and Blood of the Lord that free, pure love which makes us worthy ministers of Christ and witnesses to his joy. This is what the faithful expect of the priest: that is, the example of an authentic devotion to the Eucharist; they like to see him spend long periods of silence and adoration before Jesus as was the practice of the Holy Curé d'Ars, whom we shall remember in a special way during the upcoming Year for Priests.

(Benedict XVI, Corpus Christi Procession, 11 May 2009)