"In instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus anticipates and makes present the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the resurrection. At the same time, he reveals that he himself is the true sacrificial lamb." -Pope Benedict XVI
"Nature, therefore, suggests that a sacrifice must precede a sacrament; death is the prelude to a communion. It was our sins that slew Christ on Calvary, and yet by the power of God risen from the dead and reigning gloriously in Heaven, He now becomes our life and has communion with us and we with [...]
"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his [...]
"Nature, therefore, suggests that a sacrifice must precede a sacrament; death is the prelude to a communion. It was our sins that slew Christ on Calvary, and yet by the power of God risen from the dead and reigning gloriously in Heaven, He now becomes our life and has communion with us and we with [...]
"When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and 'the work of our redemption is carried out'.ÿ This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after [...]
"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his [...]
The vow of obedience consummates the sacrifice of the religious. It is the essential vow of religion. It alone might suffice, for it eminently comprises the others. It perfects the holocaust begun by poverty in the goods of fortune, and continued by chastity in those of the body, by offering to God the liberty, the [...]
"In short, we may say that the consecration of this sacrament, and the acceptance of this sacrifice, and its fruits, proceed from the virtue of the cross of Christ, and therefore wherever mention is made of these, the priest makes use of the sign of the cross." Source: St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica [...]
"It is Christ himself, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the priests, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice, and it is the same Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine, who is the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice." Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church #1410 [...]
"See in Jesus sacramental the virtues you ought to practise. Appropriate them to yourselves and complete them in yourselves. Yes, the Eucharistic virtues are incomplete in this sense, that Jesus can no longer perform their meritorious acts, and that He takes but their state. Thus, His Body can no longer give to the virtue of [...]