"St. Ambrose says about this conversion: Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed.... Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing [...]
"'My eyes and my heart shall be there always.' 1 Kings 9:3. Behold, Jesus has verified this beautiful promise in the Sacrament of the Altar, wherein He dwells with us night and day." Source: St. Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament
"In the bread and wine that we bring to the altar, all creation is taken up by Christ the Redeemer to be transformed and presented to the Father." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007
"Communion! Oh, what an honor God does to His creature. He rests on his tongue, passes by his palate as by a little road, and stops in his heart as on a throne." Source: St. John Vianney, The Meditations of the Curé D’Ars
"Since Christ our Redeemer declared that to be truly His own body which He offered under the form of bread, it has, therefore, always been a firm belief in the Church of God, and this holy council now declares it anew, that by the consecration of the bread and wine a change is brought about [...]
"Our Lord says (Jn. 6:52): 'The bread which I will give, is My flesh for the life of the world.' But the spiritual life is the effect of grace. Therefore grace is bestowed through this sacrament... It is considered on the part of what is represented by this sacrament, which is Christ's Passion, as stated [...]
"We cannot, even for a moment, forget that the Eucharist is a special possession belonging to the whole Church. It is the greatest gift in the order of grace and of sacrament that the divine Spouse has offered and unceasingly offers to His spouse." Source: Pope St. John Paul II, LETTER DOMINICAE CENAE OF [...]
"The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as 'the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.' In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist 'the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our [...]
"Therefore you could not be given the body without being given the blood as well; nor either the body or the blood without the soul of this Word; not the soul or body without the divinity of [Jesus], God eternal. For the one cannot be separated from the other – just as the divine nature [...]
"In this sacramental context of Christian revelation, knowledge and study of the word of God enable us better to appreciate, celebrate and live the Eucharist. Here too, we can see how true it is that 'ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ'." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007 [...]