From “On the Paschal Solemnity” by Eusebius of Caesarea (+339)  

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. Daily we gird ourselves with chastity and prepare, staff in hand, to follow the path of the Gospel. Leaning on the rod, that came forth from the root of Jesse, we are always departing from Egypt in search of the solitude of the desert. We are constantly setting out on our journey to God and celebrating the Passover. The Gospel would have us do these things not only once a year but daily. 

We hold our Eucharistic celebration every week on the day of our Lord and Saviour, for this is our paschal feast, the feast of the true Lamb who redeemed us. We do not circumcise the body with a knife, but with the sharp edge of the word of God we cut away all evil from our souls. We use no unleavened bread, except for that of sincerity and truth. Grace has freed us from outward Jewish customs and created us anew in the image of God. It has given us a new law, a new circumcision, a new Passover, and made us Jews inwardly, this releasing us from our former bondage. 

On the fifth day of the week, while having supper with his disciples, the Saviour said to them: With all my heart I have longed to eat this Passover with you. It was not the old Jewish Passover that he desired to share with his disciples, but the new Passover of the new covenant that he was giving to them, and that many prophets and upright people before him had longed to see. He proclaimed his desire for the new Passover which he, the Word himself, in his infinite thirst for the salvation of the whole human race, was establishing as a feast to be celebrated by all peoples everywhere. The Passover of Moses was not for all peoples, indeed it could not be, because the law allowed it to be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Christ’s desire, then, must have been not for the old Passover, but for the saving mystery of the new covenant which was for everyone. 

And so we too should eat this Passover with Christ. We should cleanse our minds of all the leaven of evil and wickedness and be filled with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, becoming Jews inwardly, in our souls, where the true circumcision takes place. We should anoint the lintel of our mind with the blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us, and so ward off our destroyer. We should do this not only once a year, but every week, continually. 

On the day before the Sabbath we fast in memory of our Saviour’s passion, as the apostles were the first to do when the bridegroom was taken from them. On the Lord’s day we receive life from the sacred body of our saving Passover and our souls are sealed with his precious blood. 

Musical Selection (with lyrics)

Almighty and eternal God, you have appointed your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by his Blood. Grant we beg of you, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen. (Feast of the Precious Blood; Traditional)