"The 'cup of blessing' at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup." Source: Catechism of [...]
"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit [...]
"Nothing is more frightfully true than this principle, namely, that what has once enslaved us always retains its power over us, even after our deliverance. It is the law of strength against weakness, the chastisement that sin brings with it. Hence it is, that so many persons converted and purified, fall back on the first [...]
"Barley bread serves to denote the hardness of the Old Law; both on account of the hardness of the bread, and because, as Augustine says: 'The flour within the barley, wrapped up as it is within a most tenacious fibre, denotes either the Law itself, which was given in such manner as to be vested [...]
"Through the sacrament of the Eucharist Jesus draws the faithful into his 'hour;' he shows us the bond that he willed to establish between himself and us, between his own person and the Church." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007
"Of a truth, my daughter, without purity no one can ever see God; nor can any hope to dwell in His tabernacle except he lead an uncorrupt life; and our Blessed Lord Himself has promised the special blessing of beholding Him to those that are pure in heart." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction [...]
Sunday's quote from St. Faustina describes how humility is essential for us to become saints. It's a very challenging quote because it is so simple and yet difficult for us. The quote reminds me of St. Therese of Lisieux. Her little way was a call to radical humility. St. Therese offered a model for pursuing [...]
"Take and eat: bread is not made to be put behind a glass or kept in an urn, but to be food and daily food. The greatest compliment you can pay good bread, is it not to eat it? O Flesh and Blood of Jesus, true food and drink of souls, I adore you. I [...]
"The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul, and a sea of graces flows down upon her. O how beautiful is a humble soul? …God refuses nothing to such a soul; she is all-powerful and influences the destiny of the whole world. God raises such a soul up to His very throne, and [...]
"In a certain sense Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even before the institution of the Eucharist, by the very fact that she offered her virginal womb for the Incarnation of God’s Word. The Eucharist, while commemorating the passion and resurrection, is also in continuity with the incarnation. At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of [...]