Saint John Chrysostom, with his stirring eloquence, exhorted the faithful: "I too raise my voice, I beseech, beg and implore that no one draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corrupt conscience. Such an act, in fact, can never be called 'communion', not even were we to touch the Lord's body a [...]
"We become one Body, and members of His flesh and of His bones… This is effected by the food which He has freely given us, desiring to show the love which He has for us." -St. John Chrysostom
"He calls Himself, the bread of life, because He maintains our life both which is and which is to be, and says, Whosoever shall eat of this bread shall live for ever. By bread He means here either His saving doctrines and the faith which is in Him, or His own Body; for both nerve [...]
"For when He gave them bread, and filled their bellies, they said that He was a Prophet, and sought to make Him a King: but when He taught them concerning spiritual food, concerning eternal life, when He led them away from objects of sense, and spoke to them of a resurrection, and raised their thoughts [...]
"For when He gave them bread, and filled their bellies, they said that He was a Prophet, and sought to make Him a King: but when He taught them concerning spiritual food, concerning eternal life, when He led them away from objects of sense, and spoke to them of a resurrection, and raised their thoughts [...]
"Chrysostom says (Hom. lxxxii in Matth.): 'Judas was not converted while partaking of the sacred mysteries: hence on both sides his crime becomes the more heinous, both because imbued with such a purpose he approached the mysteries, and because he became none the better for approaching, neither from fear, nor from the benefit received, nor [...]
John 6:60 – “But many of the disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying.” What means “hard?” Rough, laborious, troublesome. Yet He said nothing of this kind, for He spoke not of a mode of life, but of doctrines, continually handling the faith which is in Him. What then means, [...]
"Continually He reminds them of the manna, showing the difference, (between it and His bread,) and guiding them to the faith; for if He was able to support their life for forty years without harvest, or grain, or other things in course; much more now will He be able to do so, as having come [...]
Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion: ""Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea"" (""Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and [...]
At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the paschal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it. Source: St. John Chrysostom, Homily 47