Brothers Knights of the Eucharist, as we near the end of the first year of this Eucharistic Revival, I’d like to read for you some thoughts and quotes by a number of Catholic luminaries.
During the first few centuries of the Church, bishops and priests were diligent in their care of the Eucharist. Many of the Early Church Fathers insisted that not even a crumb should fall on the ground.
St. Hippolytus of Rome, a bishop of the 2nd century, writes these instructions in The Apostolic Tradition.
But let each of the faithful be zealous, before he eats anything else, to receive the eucharist … let each one take care that no unbeliever taste the eucharist, nor a mouse nor any other animal, and that nothing of it fall or be lost; for the body of Christ is to be eaten by believers and must not be despised. The cup, when thou hast given thanks in the name of the Lord, thou hast accepted as the image of the blood of Christ. Therefore let none of it be spilled, so that no strange spirit may lick it up, as if thou didst despise it; thou shalt be guilty of the blood, as if thou didst scorn the price with which thou hast been bought.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century reiterates this teaching in his Mystagogical Catecheses, comparing the care of the Eucharist to care of gold-dust.
Carefully hallow (make holy) your eyes by the touch (looking upon) of the sacred Body, and then partake, taking care to lose no part of It. Such a loss would be like a mutilation of your own body. Why, if you had been given gold-dust, would you not take the utmost care to hold it fast, not letting a grain slip through your fingers, lest you be by so much the poorer? How much more carefully, then, will you guard against losing so much as a crumb of that which is more precious than gold and precious stones!
Monsignor Charles Pope writes the following:
A couple of years ago I wrote of an unusual experience I had at Mass wherein a person who was troubled by a demon had those demons manifest themselves at the consecration, causing the person to run out of the Church.
I thought of that long-ago incident in relation to the current events transpiring in Oklahoma City, where a satanic cult stole the Eucharist from a Catholic parish and announced plans to desecrate it at a satanic “mass” in September. Archbishop Paul Coakley filed a lawsuit, asking a judge to stop the desecration by requiring the group to return the stolen property. He indicated in the suit that the Host was to be desecrated in the vilest ways imaginable as an offering in sacrifice to Satan.
A spokesman from the satanic group, Adam Daniels, said, “The whole basis of the [satanic] ‘mass‘ is that we take the consecrated host and give it a ‘blessing‘ or offering to Satan. We’re censoring it, [I think he means using incense], doing all things that’s [sic] normally done to bless a sacrifice, which is obviously the host body of Christ. Then we’re taking that and we’re reconsecrating it, or the Devil does …” [The bracketed comment and the single quotation marks within the above quote are mine.]
In light of the threatened lawsuit, the group returned the consecrated host to the Church. Thanks be to God.
But did you notice the satanic spokesman’s attestation regarding the host: “which is obviously the host body of Christ”?
Grave and sad though this incident was (and it wasn’t the first), these Satanists obviously consider the Catholic Eucharist to be the Body of Christ. Unless I missed it, there have been no attempts by Satanists to steal and use a Methodist host, or an Episcopal one, or a Baptist one, or a Lutheran one, etc. It is a Catholic host they seek. Here then is an affirmation of the Scripture which says, Even the demons believe—and shudder (James 2:19).
Now a few quotes:
“When the Sisters are exhausted, up to their eyes in work; when all seems to go awry, they spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. This practice has never failed to bear fruit: they experience peace and strength.” St Teresa of Calcutta
“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth.” J R R Tolkien
“Through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the gospel. Anyone who prays to the Saviour draws the whole world with him and raises it to God.” Pope St John Paul II
“Not to go to Communion is like someone dying of thirst beside a spring.” St John Vianney
“We must not separate our life from the Eucharist. The moment we do so, something shatters.” St Teresa of Calcutta