"Now if any one will seriously consider the benefits which flow from the Eucharist he will understand that conspicuous and chief among them all is that in which the rest, without exception, are included; in a word it is for men the source of life, of that life with best deserves the name. 'The bread [...]
"Works of this kind which have been already set on foot must be ever more zealously promoted; old undertakings must be revived wherever perchance they may have fallen into decay; for instance, Confraternities of the holy Eucharist, intercessory prayers before the blessed Sacrament exposed for the veneration of the faithful, solemn processions, devout visits to [...]
"History bears witness that the virtues of the Christian life have flourished best wherever and whenever the frequent reception of the Eucharist has most prevailed." Source: Pope Leo XIII, MIRAE CARITATIS: ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST, May 28, 1902
"This sacrament, whether as the theme of devout meditation, or as the object of public adoration, or best of all as a food to be received in the utmost purity of conscience, is to be regarded as the centre towards which the spiritual life of a Christian in all its ambit gravitates; for all other [...]
"The keenness of the mind is blunted by bodily pleasures, how much more, in the region of revealed truths, do these same pleasures obscure the light of faith, or even, by the just judgment of God, entirely extinguish it. For these pleasures at the present day an insatiable appetite rages, infecting all classes as with [...]
"Now nothing can be better adapted to promote a renewal of the strength and fervor of faith in the human mind than the mystery of the Eucharist." Source: Pope Leo XIII, MIRAE CARITATIS: ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST, May 28, 1902
"Moreover, in this most admirable Sacrament, which is the chief means whereby men are engrafted on the divine nature, men also find the most efficacious help towards progress in every kind of virtue." Source: Pope Leo XIII, MIRAE CARITATIS: ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST, May 28, 1902 [...]
"First of all, We want to recall something that you know very well but that is absolutely necessary if the virus of every kind of rationalism is to be repelled; it is something that many illustrious martyrs have witnessed to with their blood, something that celebrated fathers and Doctors of the Church have constantly professed [...]
"For there is this difference between food of the body and that of the soul, that whereas the former is changed into our substance, the latter changes us into its own; so that St. Augustine makes Christ Himself say: 'You shall not change Me into yourself as you do the food of your body, but [...]
"Thus was life communicated to man, a life truly heavenly and divine… Since this life of which We are speaking bears a definite resemblance to the natural life of man, as the one draws its nourishment and strength from food, so also the other must have its own food whereby it may be sustained and [...]