This week will mark the 1st Anniversary of the daily quotes on the Eucharist and on Virtue. The website went live a few weeks before that, but the first daily quote was posted February 22, 2016. In that time, I’ve only missed a few days of posting – three days in October when attended a Cursillo retreat (it was amazing!) and Christmas day when I forgot to post.

Since the start, we have grown to over 2,000 followers on facebook with well over 20,000 post likes. On twitter, we have over 140 followers and over 74,000 views of our quotes. The website has had over 3,600 visitors.

I’m excited about this first year. I started EucharisticVirtue because I wanted to share the quotes that inspired me. When I returned to the Church, I wanted to learn how to live well. To do that, I studied and prayed. I wanted to make sure I was reading books that taught truth, so I focused on classics by saints that were highly regarded for their writing and theology. Then, as I read, I underlined and saved quotes that resonated Truth.  Most of this was related to virtue, since my goal was learning to live better, but I was also drawn to the Eucharist (and to devotion to Our Lady). The more I grew in love with the Eucharist, the more I wanted to live virtuously, and the more I grew in virtue, the more I loved the Eucharist. The two are inseparable. When we encounter the Eucharist, we must respond, and that response is living as Christ calls us to live.

Eventually, I had the inspiration to publish the quotes. This led to creating this website dedicated to the Eucharist and living virtuously.  I wanted to share the quotes and hope others are drawn closer to Christ through them.

Some of the quotes are challenging. Often, we trim our faith to what we are comfortable with and ignore the rest. This can occur when we encounter aspects of faith that must be balanced, such as mercy and justice. Consider some of the quotes that advise against judging others (https://eucharisticvirtue.com/tag/judging/). In today’s culture, we are often told not to judge others. This is a very Catholic view and one we need to strive to embrace. At the same time, one of the spiritual works of mercy is to rebuke sinners.  For example, this quote (https://eucharisticvirtue.com/2016/05/24/daily-virtue-quote-st-catherine-siena-7/) from Catherine of Siena calls us bring the light of justice to correct sinners.

We must recognize that both calls, to avoid judging and to rebuke sinners, are true. We are not God and should not judge others, but we also are called to charity and that requires liberating others from the enslavement of sin.

One of the primary themes of the virute quotes, in fact, the foundation of virtues, is necessity for humility. So many of the saints call us to humility. St. Hildegard makes humility the foundation of her pillar to heaven. Other saints talk about humility as necessary in the spiritual life. Some go so far as to describe humility as essential for all virtue, and without humility, no true virtue can exist.

Looking at the Eucharist, it is essential to understand that we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Once we understand and accept the real presence, all the other theology flows from that fundamental Truth. The Blessed Sacrament is truly Jesus.

In addition to the quotes, EucharisticVirtue has other valuable resources.

  • The Eucharist in Scripture – Dozens of verses from Scripture that discuss the Eucharist. There is a rich prophetic history in the OT predicting the Eucharist, and the NT explains the fulfillment and theology.
  • The Paths to Virtue – Several saints explain how to grow in virtue in a clear step by step manner.

I hope you will explore these additional resources.

I have another year of quotes queued up for this year. Sometime in 2018, I’ll run out and have to decide if I’ll start repeating or if I’ll find new quotes, but for now, we have a lot more ahead!

Check back – I have more planned this week include a Top-20 list of the most popular quotes and a book giveaway!