After completing my Masters thesis this past Spring, I took to Twitter to share some small gems that I found while researching. I shared one quote about the Eucharist from each of the past twenty centuries of its celebration. Enjoy.
1st #centuryEucharist For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Paul
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
2nd #centuryEucharist For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. Irenaeus — Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
3rd #centuryEucharist We who are in Christ daily receive the Eucharist for the food of salvation. Cyprian — Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
4th #centuryEucharist It is with This we are nourished, to This we are joined; made one Body and One Flesh with Christ. John Crysostom — Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
5th #centuryEucharist Whatever was announced in the sacrifices of the OT pertain to this one sacrifice, revealed in the NT. Augustine
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
6th #centuryEucharist He, who then changed water into wine, may now change the wine of the oblations into His own Blood. Gotho-Gallic Missal
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 17, 2014
7th #centuryEucharist They [disciples in Luke 24] knew the Lord, Alleluia, in the breaking of the bread, Alleluia. May we. Stowe Missal
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 18, 2014
8th #centuryEucharist Bread and wine are employed: for God performs His supernatural works through familiar objects. John of Damascus
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 18, 2014
9th #centuryEucharist Nothing is more absurd than to take bread as flesh and to say that wine is blood. Ratramnus (cf. Paschasius Radbertus)
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 18, 2014
10th #centuryEucharist For whoever partakes of Your divine and deifying Gifts certainly is not alone, but is with You, my Christ. Symeon
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 18, 2014
11th #centuryEucharist [Once consecrated,] the bread and the wine are what they were and are changed into something else. Berengar of Tours
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 19, 2014
12th #centuryEucharist It is still ordinary bread until the Priest pronounces over it: “Hoc est enim corpus meum.” Hildebert of Tours
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 19, 2014
13th #centuryEucharist His body is not in this sacrament in the same way as a body is in a place, but in a special manner. Thomas Aquinas
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 20, 2014
14th #centuryEucharist The nature of the bread is not destroyed by what is done by the priest,but becomes a more honored substance. Wycliffe
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 20, 2014
15th #centuryEucharist Go forward, then, with sincere and unflinching faith, and with humble reverence approach this Sacrament. Kempis
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 20, 2014
16th #centuryEucharist It is on all sides plainly confessed, that this sacrament is a true and a real participation of Christ. Hooker
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 21, 2014
17th #centuryEucharist The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Scottish BCP
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 21, 2014
18th #centuryEucharist We must live the Eucharist, and let the rays of mercy pass through us and go out to all the world. Sister Faustina
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 21, 2014
19th #centuryEucharist The Holy Eucharist is the great and central act of Christian worship, our closest nearness to God. Edward Pusey
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 23, 2014
20th #centuryEucharist Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. C.S. Lewis
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 24, 2014
21st #centuryEucharist Material reality can become charged with Jesus’ life, and so proclaim hope for the whole world of matter. ++Williams
— Jon R. Jordan (@jonrjordan) February 24, 2014