Eucharistic Gems (March)
March 24, 2024
March 1. Just as the body of Christ was signified more exactly by the bread and his blood by the wine, so the Church, which is also the Body of Christ, seemed signified by the consecrated bread, whilst the wine changed into the blood of Christ was naturally the symbol of love which is like the blood wherein is the life of this great Body. Fr. Henri de Lubac
March 2. The Eucharist demands that we be members of the one body of the Church. Those who approach the Body and Blood of Christ may not wound that same Body by creating scandalous distinctions and divisions among its members. Pope Francis
March 3. Always try to approach the Holy Table with more and more love. Divest your heart of all love of the world and of yourself and then you will leave room for Jesus. Thank Our Lord for having redeemed your soul with His Most Precious Blood. St. Katharine Drexel
March 4. We do not all possess the fullness of the priesthood here on earth, with the power to bring about the real presence of our Lord’s body and blood by pronouncing the words of consecration, but all of us are called to exercise a priestly function by offering ourselves to God according to that exhortation of the Apostle Paul: I beseech you to present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, since this is the service required of rational beings. In no other way shall we be permitted to enter into the celestial Holy of Holies, by which I mean heaven itself. Rupert of Deutz
March 5. In the Blood [of Christ] humanity sees God humbled to his own level, assuming our humanity, which was opened and nailed and fastened on the Cross, so that it flows from the wounds of the Body of Christ crucified, and pours over us the Blood which is ministered to us by the ministers of Holy Church. I beg you by the love of Christ crucified to receive the treasure of the Blood given you by the Bride of Christ. St. Catherine of Siena
March 6. The gift of love allows us to be what the sacrament celebrates in mystery. Regarding this, the apostle Paul says: Because there is one bread we, although many, are one body (1 Cor 10:17). In remembering his death, our Savior wanted us to ask for that which he asked for us: Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one (Jn 17:11).We ask this for ourselves, therefore, when we offer the body and blood of Christ…. The holy Church, while it prays in the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ that the Holy Spirit be sent to her, is obviously asking for the gift of love, with which it can preserve the unity of the Spirit with the bond of peace. St. Fulgentius of Ruspe
March 7. If we do not shirk the wine-press of sacrifice and pain we shall become one with him, for it is the good wine which is at work within us, the wine which is the blood of the unconquered Christ, our Lord….The bridegroom’s clothes are red with the blood of suffering, and those who belong to him, and wish to drink of that blood must bleed with him. If they do, he will invite them to his wedding-banquet, and give them that wine to drink, which at once sobers and makes drunk. Sr. Aemiliana Lohr
March 8. I beg you to show the greatest possible reverence and honor for the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things, whether on earth or in heaven, have been brought to peace and reconciled with Almighty God. St. Francis of Assisi
March 9. The bread again is at first common bread; but when the mystery sanctifies it, it is called and actually becomes the Body of Christ. So too the mystical oil, so too the wine; if they are things of little worth before the blessing, after their sanctification by the Spirit each of them has its own superior operation. This same power of the word also makes the priest venerable and honorable, separated from the generality of men by the new blessing bestowed upon him. St. Gregory of Nyssa
March 10. O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive. St. Ephrem the Syrian
March 11. To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial; for Jesus says quite plainly: “He that eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life.” Who can doubt that to share continually in life is the same thing as having life abundantly? We ourselves communicate four times each week…and on other days if there is a commemoration of any saint. St. Basil the Great
March 12. So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius of Alexandria
March 13. On one occasion I saw a brilliant light coming from heaven, irradiate the whole altar….a flame of extraordinary brightness shot down from above upon the bread and wine, illuminating them with its light as the rays of the sun make glass to shine. Upon this stream of light the sacred elements rose to Heaven, and when they descended they were transformed into true flesh and blood, though to the eye of man they yet appeared to be bread and wine. As I gazed upon this Flesh and Blood I saw the signs of the incarnation, the birth, the passion, of Our Saviour reflected in them as in a mirror, and just as we know these events to have been accomplished when the Son of God was on earth. St Hildegard of Bingen
March 14. Scrupulous people for the smallest peccadillo deprive themselves of the Body and Blood of My Word; and, imagining they are avoiding an evil, they lose an infinite good. St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi
March 15. Upon receiving Holy Communion, the Adorable Blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins and His Flesh is really blended with ours. St. John Vianney
March 16. From the wine cellar of his pierced side pours forth abundantly the wine of life-giving charity. Surely if Christ is the true vine, if his flesh is the grape of the vine, how will the blood which flows down from his flesh not be the wine? Or how would his bride the Church please her bridegroom if she did not possess in the sacred mysteries this wine coming from Christ himself? This is the wine which makes glad the heart of man (Ps 104:15), for the blood of Christ produces in the soul the intoxication of a sober love. Adam of Perseigne
March 17. The hour of the bloody marriage feast is very near, when he is to die on the cross, and let blood and water stream from his body. The water will flow into the well of baptism; the blood will flow and under the sign of the wine mixed with the water in the chalice of the altar. These are great mysteries: blood and water, both full of the life of God, pouring from his ‘deepest heart’. There is life, pneuma, in this blood and water. Sr. Aemiliana Lohr
March 18. Do not, then, regard the Eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the Body and Blood of The Lord, as He Himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. St. Cyril of Jerusalem
March 19. Although St. Joseph never adored our Lord under the Eucharistic species and never had the happiness of receiving Holy Communion, he did possess and adore Jesus in human form…. In Joseph, we find the perfect adorer, entirely consecrated to Jesus, working always near Jesus, giving Jesus his virtues, his time, his very life; it is thus that he is our model and our inspiration…. Because his faith was so strong, St. Joseph’s mind and heart bowed in perfect adoration. Imitate his faith as you kneel before the humble Christ annihilated in the Eucharist. Pierce the veil which covers this furnace of love and adore the hidden God. At the same time respect the veil of love and make the immolation of your mind and heart your most beautiful homage of faith….From close union with this holy adorer I shall learn to adore our Lord and to live in intimacy with Him. I shall then be the Joseph of the Eucharist as he was the Joseph of Nazareth. St. Peter Julian Eymard
March 20. On the altar stone at each and every Mass the Father sees the body and blood of the Son of his love. And the Son places before the eyes of the Father his love, obedience, suffering, an oblation of his whole life. And, of course, the Father casts on us all a look of mercy. Bl. Columba Marmion
March 21. Let thy holy Word, O God of truth, come down upon this bread, so that the bread may become the body of the Word, and on this chalice, so that the chalice may become the blood of Truth. And grant that all who partake of them, may receive the medicine of life, as a cure for all sickness and as an increase and progress in virtue, not, however, as judgment, O God of truth, nor as punishment and disgrace. The Anaphora of St. Serapion
March 22. The blessing of the Christian Eucharist makes bread and wine, created things which are made to nourish human life, into the Body and Blood of Christ on which we feed to become His Mystical Body. Fr. Louis Bouyer
March 23. Partaking of the Lord's table cannot be separated from the duty of loving our neighbor. Each time we partake of the Eucharist, we too say our "Amen" before the Body and Blood of our Lord. In doing so we commit ourselves to doing what Christ has done, to "washing the feet" of our brothers and sisters, becoming a real and visible image of the One who "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant"(Phil 2. 7) .... The Eucharist is a great gift, but also a great responsibility for those who receive it. Pope St. John Paul II
March 24. On Palm Sunday after Communion, my faculties remained in such deep suspension that I couldn't even swallow the host; and, holding it in my mouth, after I returned a little to myself, it truly seemed to me that my entire mouth was filled with blood. I felt that my face and all the rest of me was also covered with this blood, as though the Lord had just then finished shedding it. It seemed to me warm, and the sweetness I then experienced was extraordinary. The Lord said to me: "Daughter, I want my blood to be beneficial to you, and don't be afraid that My mercy will fail you. I shed it with many sufferings, and you enjoy it with the great delight you are aware of; I repay you well for the banquet you prepare me this day. St. Teresa of Avila
March 25. These are days filled with holiness and grace by which even the wicked are provoked to repentance; even hearts of stone are broken open and people who seemed dead are raised to new life. These are days in which we think of great sacraments, of the washing away of sin, of the healing of the disfigurements sin causes, and of the marvelous food that is Christ’s body and blood given to us. St. Bernard of Clairvaux
March 26. As Jesus meets with his friends for that last supper and tells them to see the broken bread and wine poured out as his body and blood which are about to be broken and poured out in crucifixion, he says in effect, “What is going to happen to me, the suffering and death I’m about to endure, the tearing of my flesh and the shedding of my blood, is to be the final, the definitive, sign of God’s welcome and God’s mercy.’ Instead of being the ultimate tragedy and disaster, it is an open door into the welcome of the Father. Archbishop Rowan Williams
March 27. It is the Lord’s Passover, Scripture tells us, that is, the Lord’s passing. We are no longer to look upon the bread and wine as earthly substances. They have become heavenly, because Christ has passed into them and changed them into his body and blood. What you receive is the body of him who is the heavenly bread, and the blood of him who is the sacred vine; for when he offered his disciples the consecrated bread and wine, he said: This is my body, this is my blood. We have put our trust in him. I urge you to have faith in him; truth can never deceive. St. Gaudentius of Brescia
March 28 (Holy Thursday). Before the Lord makes the offering of his death, his care is that it should become the abiding sacrifice of his Church. At the moment when he enters into the holy of holies as eternal high-priest, he makes the Church through baptism in his blood a sharer and participant in his sacrifice. He gives her this chalice, and he says, ‘Do this in commemoration of me. Drink the chalice which I have drunk. Drink the Father’s will. Drink this blood, and the obedience and the love to death which go with it.’ Sr. Aemiliana Lohr
March 29 (Good Friday). The spear wound, not the breaking of His bones, is the conclusion of Christ’s salvific sacrifice for the redemption of humankind. This blood and water wash human sin and create the New Testament Church, with its grace-bestowing mysterious gifts: baptismal water and eucharistic blood. Fr. Sergei Bulgakov
March 30. (Holy Saturday) The church does what the Lord had done, with the words which he himself spoke when he gave his body and his blood in the form of bread and wine to his disciples as a pledge of eternal life. The church celebrates the Anamnesis, the “remembrance” of the meal that instituted the new covenant. The church recalls what once happened but does not bring about a repetition of the actual event which happened once and for all on Calvary. Rather, what happened then enters into our place and our time, and acquires presence and redemptive power within our own being. Fr. Karl Rahner
March 31 (Easter Sunday). In the time of Moses, the paschal lamb was sacrificed only once a year, on the fourteenth day of the first month toward evening, but we of the new covenant celebrate our Passover every week on the Lord’s day. We are continually being filled with the body of the Saviour and sharing in the blood of the Lamb. St. Eusebius of Caesarea