"In the Eucharist we touch in a way the very mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as is attested by the very words used at its institution, the words that, because of that institution, have become the words with which those called to this ministry in the Church unceasingly celebrate the Eucharist." [...]
"If He had not died, He would now mount Calvary to save us; and if He had not already instituted the Blessed Sacrament, He would institute It for each one of us. Does not Saint Paul say: 'He loved me' concentrating in himself alone all the love of Our Lord?" Source: Â St. Peter Julian [...]
"In it is present 'the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God' (Heb 9:14); the blood 'poured out for many' (Mk 14:24) 'for the forgiveness of sins' (Mt 26:28); the blood 'which purifies your conscience from dead works' (cf. Heb 9:14); the 'blood of the covenant' (Mt 26:28). [...]
"The Evangelists did not intend to hand down the forms of the sacraments, which in the primitive Church had to be kept concealed, as Dionysius observes at the close of his book on the ecclesiastical hierarchy; their object was to write the story of Christ. Nevertheless nearly all these words can be culled from various [...]
"Beginning with the Upper Room and Holy Thursday, the celebration of the Eucharist has a long history, a history as long as that of the Church. In the course of this history the secondary elements have undergone certain changes, but there has been no change in the essence of the 'Mysterium' instituted by the Redeemer [...]
"'Do this in memory of me' The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words 'until he comes' does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, [...]
"On the night before he died, Jesus instituted the Eucharist and at the same time established the priesthood of the New Covenant." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007
"By his command to 'do this in remembrance of me', he asks us to respond to his gift and to make it sacramentally present." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007