January 1. We have power to follow him only step by step, power to shed our blood into the great cup of sacrifice only drop by drop. Jesus’ sacrificial dedication was not completed in a single day; how much less will ours be. Each year we must begin again with the child Jesus, offering our blood with him by means of the circumcision of our earthly ways.  Sr. Aemiliana Löhr 

 

January 2. What is the mark of a Christian? That s/he be purified of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit in the Blood of Christ, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God and the love of Christ, and that he have no blemish nor spot nor any such thing; that s/he be holy and blameless and so eat the Body of Christ and drink His Blood.  St. Basil of Caesarea

 

January 3.  When we share in the Lord’s body and blood, when we eat his bread and drink his cup, this truly means that we die to the world and have our hidden life with Christ in God, crucifying our flesh and its weaknesses and its desires.   St. Fulgentius of Ruspe

 

January 4. If Jesus Christ has so loved you as to give you his Body and Blood, his Soul, his Divinity, is there anything else he will not also give you?  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

 

January 5. When Christ gave the Bread He did not say “This is the symbol of My Body” but “This is My Body”. In the same way when He gave the cup He did not say “This is the symbol of My Blood” but “This is My Blood”; for He wanted us to look upon the Eucharistic elements after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but that we receive them as they are: the Body and Blood of our Lord.  Theodore of Mopsuestia

January 6.  O God, O Creator, O Spirit of Life overwhelming Your creatures with ever new graces! You grant to Your chosen ones the gift which is ever renewed: the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!  St. Angela of Foligno

 

January 7. (Epiphany)  This day, in which we commemorate and celebrate the general Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the whole world in his birth, all we, we who besides our interest in the universal Epiphany and manifestation implied in the very day, have this day received the body and blood of Christ in his holy and blessed sacrament, have had another Epiphany, another Christmas day, another manifestation and application of Christ to ourselves.  John Donne

 

January 8. (Baptism of the Lord)  Christ has come, visible in flesh, that he might be able to go down into Jordan and to climb up on the cross. In the type of the river water and in the reality of the blood that flows from his pierced heart, he makes the members of his body clean, he washes his Church free from sin, and gives her his blood to drink. Sr. Aemiliana Löhr

 

January 9. Christ gives the beginnings of the signs from heaven, when he changes water into wine. But water was to be changed into the mystery of the blood, so that Christ, from the goblet of his Body, might give pure draughts to those who drink, to fulfil that saying of the prophet: My chalice which inebriates me, how good it is.  St. Peter Chrysologous

 

January 10. Each morn you come to me as early Mass, Your flesh and blood become my food and drink; And wonders are accomplished. Your body permeates mine mysteriously, I feel your soul becoming one with mine: I am no longer what I used to be.  St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

 

January 11. In the Eucharist we learn to see the heights and depths of reality. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, who becomes present in his passover to the Father: this movement draws us, body and soul, into the movement of all creation towards its fulfillment in God.  Pope Francis

 

January 12. Hasten, linger not, eat the honeycomb with your honey, drink your wine with your milk. The blood is changed into wine to inebriate you, the water into milk to nourish you.  From the rock streams have flowed for you, wounds have been made in his limbs, holes in the wall of his body, in which, like a dove, you may hide while you kiss them one by one. Your lips, stained with his blood, will become like a scarlet ribbon and your word sweet. St. Aelred of Rievaulx

 

January 13. When we speak of the reality of Christ's nature being in us, we would be speaking foolishly and impiously - had we not learned it from Him. For He Himself says: 'My Flesh is truly Food, and My Blood is truly Drink. He that eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will remain in Me and I in him.' As to the reality of His Flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt, because now, both by the declaration of the Lord Himself and by our own faith, it is truly the Flesh and it is truly Blood. And These Elements bring it about, when taken and consumed, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Let those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God be free to find these things untrue. But He Himself is in us through the flesh and we are in Him, while that which we are with Him is in God.  St. Hilary of Poitiers

 

January 14. Our sharing in the body and blood of Christ leads to no other end than that of transforming us into that which we receive.  Pope St. Leo the Great

 

January 15. [The Eucharist] is called participation because through it we participate in the divinity of Jesus. It is also called communion, and truly is so, because of our having communion through it with Christ and partaking both of his flesh and his divinity, and because through it we have communion with and are united to one another. For, since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood and members of one another and are accounted of the same body with Christ. St. John Damascene

 

January 16. When you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you, then stretch out your hand and take your portion knowing that you in your turn will have to provide the same kind of meal. What is this ruler’s table, if not the altar at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? And what does it mean to sit at this table, if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to stretch out your hand and take your portion knowing that you will have to provide the same kind of meal yourself, if not what I have already told you, namely that just as Christ laid down his life for us so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brethren? St. Augustine of Hippo

 

January 17.  Christ offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.  St. Thomas Aquinas

 

January 18. Christ took an element of creation, bread, and giving thanks said: This is my body. In the same way he declared the cup, which is of the same creation as ourselves, to be his blood, and taught that it was the new offering of the new covenant. It is this offering which the Church has received from the Apostles and which, throughout the whole world, it offers to the God who gives us food, as the first fruits of his own gifts under the new covenant.  St. Irenaeus of Lyons

 

January 19. Christ said: This is my Body; therefore the Eucharist is not the figure of his Body and Blood, as some have said, talking nonsense in their stupid minds, but it is in very truth the Blood and Body of Christ.  St. Macarius the Great

 

January 20. O boundless fire of love! You have given us your flesh as food and your blood as drink! You are the Lamb roasted in the fire of blazing charity!”  St. Catherine of Siena

 

January 21. (Sunday of the Word of God).  We drink the blood of Christ not only in the sacramental rite, but also when we receive his words in which are life.  Origen of Alexandria

 

January 22. Could we not say that in Communion there is a kind of infusion into our souls of the body and blood of Jesus Christ; or in following the force and energy of the gospel text, that there is a kind of infusion into our souls of the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ?  Bl. William Joseph Chaminade

 

January 23.  Earth does not cover over the blood of our Redeemer, for every sinner, as he drinks the blood that is the price of his redemption, offers praise and thanksgiving, and to the best of his power makes that blood known to all around him.  Pope St. Gregory the Great

 

January 24. Our Savior has instituted the most august sacrament of the Eucharist, which contains his flesh and blood in their reality, so that whoever eats of it shall live forever. Therefore, whoever turns to it frequently and devoutly so effectively builds up his soul’s health that it is almost impossible for him to be poisoned by evil affection of any kind.  St. Francis de Sales

 

January 25. I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,  and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  St. Paul the Apostle

 

January 26. Before the Redemption, mankind was like a wild tree which could bring forth only fruits of death; but with the Redemption, we have been grafted into Christ, and Christ, who nourishes us with His own Blood, has every right to find in us fruits of sanctity, of eternal life. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene

January 27. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not communion of the Blood of Christ?' Very trustworthily and awesomely does he say it. For what he is saying is this: 'What is in the cup is that which flowed from His side, and we partake of it.' He called it a cup of blessing because when we hold it in our hands that is how we praise Him in song, wondering and astonished at His indescribable Gift, blessing Him because of His having poured out this very Gift so that we might not remain in error, and not only for His having poured out It out, but also for His sharing It with all of us.  St. John Chrysostom

 

January 28. The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight, defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence, cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God, enlightens the understanding to know God, inflames the will and the affections with the love of God, fills the memory with spiritual sweetness, confirms the entire man in good, frees us from eternal death, multiplies the merits of a good life, leads us to our everlasting home, and re-animates the body to eternal life.  St. Thomas Aquinas

 

January 29. Go and receive the body and blood of Christ's human nature from the hand of the priest in order that the Son may bear witness that you belong to him whose body you receive to strengthen your soul.  St. Bridget of Sweden

 

January 30. One man has died for all, and now in every church in the mystery of bread and wine he heals those for whom he is offered in sacrifice, giving life to those who believe and holiness to those who consecrate the offering. This is the flesh of the Lamb; this is his blood.  St. Gaudentius of Brescia

 

January 31. Do you understand, Christian, what it means to go to Holy Communion? It means  approaching the table of the angels to receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ given as food for our souls under the species of consecrated bread and wine.  St. John Bosco