Saints' Quotes on the Eucharist
Quotations by the Saints
July 3rd
“Go with Him, as His inseparable companion, to the wedding feast of Cana, and drink of the wine of His Blessing. Let you have ever before you the Face of the Lord, and look upon His beauty, and let your earnest gaze turn nowhere away from His most sweet countenance. Go before Him into a desert place and see the wonder of His works, where He multiplied in His own Holy Hands the bread that sufficed to feed a great multitude. Go, my brother, go forward, and with all the love of your soul follow Christ wherever He may go . . . and lovingly behold Him as taking bread into His hands, He blesses it, and breaks it, as the outward form of His own Immaculate Body; and the chalice which He blessed as the outward from of His precious Blood, and gave to His disciples; and be you also a partaker of His sacraments,” - St. Ephrem of Syria (c. 306-73) Feast Day July 9th
July 10th
“As two pieces of wax fused together make one, so he who receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ that Christ is in him and he is in Christ.” - St. Cyril of Alexandria
“The Eucharist bathes the tormented soul in light and love. Then the soul appreciates these words, ‘Come all you who are sick, I will restore your health.’” - St. Bernadette Soubirous
July 17th
“Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the Refreshment of holy souls, our daily and super substantial Bread.” - St. Bonaventure – Feast Day, July 14th.
“This is the Bread of everlasting life which supports the substance of our soul.” - St. Ambrose
July 24th
“Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament BECAUSE OF HIS INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU!” “Behold I will be with you always even to the end of the world,” because “I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is My affection for you.” (Mt 28-20, Jer 31:3) – from “One Lord, One Body, One People”
July 31st
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ.” St. Paul
“And according as we say, “Our Father,” because He is The Father of those who understand and believe; so also we call it “our Bread,” because Christ is The Bread of those who are in unison with His Body. And we ask that this Bread should be given to us daily, that we who are in Christ and daily receive The Eucharist for the Food of Salvation, may not, by the interposition of some heinous sin…be separated from Christ’s Body.” St. Cyprian
August 7th
"If we could comprehend all the good things contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be wanting to content the heart of man. The miser would run no more after his treasures, or the ambitious after glory; each would shake off the dust of the earth, leave the world, and fly away towards heaven," - St. John Vianney - Feast Day August 4th
"When we go before the Blessed Sacrament, let us open our heart; our good God will open His. We shall go to Him; He will come to us; the one to ask, the other to receive. It will be like a breath from one to the other," - St. John Vianney
August 14th
“Jesus has made himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there.
If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that
Adoration.” Mother Teresa
“This supernatural bread and this consecrated chalice are for the health and salvation of mankind.” St. Cyprian
August 21st
“For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer . . . is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (Apologia prima pro Christianis, 66). St. Justin
August 28th
“On the altar you are looking at the same thing as you saw there last night. You have not heard, however, what this is, what it signifies, or about the greatness of the reality of which it is a sacrament. Your eyes are looking at bread and cup. This is the evidence before your physical sight. But your faith must be instructed concerning it - this bread being Christ’s Body and the cup containing His Blood. Though perhaps these words may be enough to initiate faith, faith must be further instructed in accordance with the Prophet’s words: “Believe that you may understand.” (Is 7:9) St. Augustine of Hippo Feast Day August 28.
September 4th
"This supernatural bread and this consecrated chalice are for the health and salvation of mankind." - St. Cyprian - Feast Day, September 16.
“God dwells in our midst in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar" - St. Maximilian Kolbe
September 11th
“When we work hard, we must eat well. What a joy, that you can receive Holy Communion often! It’s our life and support in this life – Receive Communion often, and Jesus will change you into Himself.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard
“The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.” - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
September 18th
“Our Lord Jesus Christ joined together on the same day the paschal lamb of the Jews and the True Manna when blessing the bread and the wine He said: ‘This is My Body, this is My Blood.’” - St. Cyril of Alexandria
“If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to Heaven without the Bread of Heaven.” -St. Jerome, Feast Day - September 30th.
September 25th
"And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it: and gave it to His disciples, and said:’ Take ye, and eat. This is my body.’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.'" (Matthew 26:26-28) - Feast day, September 21.
October 2nd
“And so now with all those who see the Blessed Sacrament, sanctified by Our Lord's words on the altar, through the hands of the priest, in the form of bread and wine: if they do not see and believe, as the spirit and the Divine nature demand that it is truly the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, they stand condemned. For it is the Most High who bears witness to it. He says, ‘This is My Body, and the Blood of the New Testament’ (Mk, 14, 22-24) and, ‘He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, has life everlasting.’” (Jn. 6, 55) - from the writings of St. Francis of Assisi on The Blessed Sacrament - Feast Day October 4th.
October 9th
"The Blessed Sacrament is the first and supreme object of our worship. We must preserve in the depths of our hearts a constant and uninterrupted, profound adoration of this precious pledge of Divine Love." - Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier
October 16th
"No tongue can express the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ bears to our souls. He did not wish that between Him and His servants there should be any other pledge than Himself, to keep alive the remembrance of Him." - St. Peter of Alcantara, Feast Day- October 19
“The Eucharist is not only a particularly intense expression of the reality of the Church’s life, but also in a sense its fountainhead. The Eucharist feeds and forms the Church: ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread’ (1Cor 10:17 RSV). Because of this link with the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the mystery of the Church is savored, proclaimed, and lived supremely in the Eucharist.” - From Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini, Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 1998
October 23rd
"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament." - St. Augustine, Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 {original translation)
October 30th
“I desire to unite Myself to human souls, know, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. . . They treat Me as a dead object. (1385)
Now you shall consider My love in the Blessed Sacrament. Here, I am entirely yours, soul, body and divinity, as your Bridegroom. You know what love demands: one thing only, reciprocity. . . (1770) - Jesus to St. Faustina
November 6th
"As a man must be born before he can begin to lead his physical life, so he must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Sacrament of Baptism. To survive, he must be nourished by Divine Life; that is done in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.” - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
November 13th
"The Eucharist is connected with the Passion. If Jesus had not established the Eucharist we would have forgotten the crucifixion. It would have faded into the past and we would have forgotten that Jesus loved us. There is a saying that to be far away from the eyes is to be far away from the heart. To make sure that we do not forget, Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of His love . . . When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then, when you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
November 20th
"Jesus made Himself our food in order to assimilate us to Himself, to make us live His life, to make us live in Him, as He Himself lives in His Father. The Eucharist is truly the Sacrament of Union and at the same time it is the clearest and most convincing proof that God calls us and pleads with us to come to intimate union with Himself." - Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
November 27th
“Every morning during meditation, I prepare myself for the whole day's struggle. Holy Communion assures me that I will win the victory; and so it is. I fear the day when I do not receive Holy Communion. This bread of the Strong gives me all the strength I need to carry on my mission and the courage to do whatever the Lord asks of me. The courage and strength that are in me are not of me, but of Him who lives in me - it is the Eucharist.” - St. Faustina
December 4th
"What shall we say of St. Francis Xavier who at times when distributing Holy Communion felt so carried away by a sense of adoration toward Our Lord Who was in his hands, that he got on his knees and in that position continued giving Holy Communion? Did that not present a witness of faith and love worthy of heaven?" (St. Francis Xavier feast day December 3rd)
December 11th
Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament BECAUSE OF HIS INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU! "Behold I will be with you always even to the end of the world," because "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is My affection for you." (Mt 28:20; Jer 31:3) - from "One Lord, One Body, One People"
December 18th
“Like so many pilgrims before us, we kneel in wonder and adoration before the ineffable mystery which was accomplished here... In This Child - the Son who is given to us - we find rest for our souls and the true bread that never fails - the Eucharistic Bread foreshadowed even in the name of this town: Bethlehem, the house of bread. God lies hidden in the Child; divinity lies hidden in the Bread of Life," - Pope John Paul II, Mass in Manger Square, Bethlehem
December 25th
"Consider the humble sacrifice that the shepherds and the three Wise Men made in their long journey to adore the Christ Child. Only the humble shepherds and the wise astrologers followed the star of faith to Bethlehem. He was the King, much greater than they were. No journey was too long because any trouble they had was infinitely worth the sacrifice. When they saw Him, they bowed down before Him. Where was the rest of the world? Who could understand then that the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes was the hidden Incarnate Word of God? He came quietly and lovingly. Only the humble and wise could see the humble Jesus lying in a manger. The rest of the world passed Him by. Look at how God has never stopped honoring the shepherds and the magi for honoring His Son in Bethlehem. The humble sacrifice of their long journey is praised in Scripture. And around the world in every church and Christian home at Christmas, they are included in every Nativity scene. In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus comes to us even more humbly than He did before. That is why your sacrifice will give God even greater glory than the glory given Him by the shepherds and the three Wise Men. And God will honor you even more than the shepherds and the three Wise Men for all eternity for honoring His Son in the Blessed Sacrament with the humility of your sacrifice!" - from the pamphlet "The Value of Sacrifice"
January 8th
“If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude." - St. Angela of Foligno
January 15th
"Not as common bread or as common drink do we receive these.....We have been taught that the food that has been Eucharistized by the word of prayer, that food which by assimilation nourishes our flesh and blood, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus." - St. Justin Martyr
January 22nd
"Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee!" - from the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
"When we ingest the Eucharist in reality we are ingesting the Godhead.....because His Body and Blood are diffused through our members we becomepartakers of the divine nature." - St. Cyril of Alexandria - Feast Day January 28th
January 29th
"How many of you say: I should like to see His face, His garments, His shoes. You do see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him. He gives Himself to you, not only that you may see Him, but also to be your food and nourishment." - St. John Chrysostom - Feast Day January 27th
February 5th
"I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world. I want only God's bread, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, formed of the seed of David, and for drink I crave His Blood which is love that cannot perish." - St. Ignatius of Antioch (Feast Day February 1)
February 12th
Our Lord Jesus Christ joined together on the same day the paschal lamb of the Jews and the True Manna when blessing the bread and the wine He said: "This is My Body, this is My Blood." - St. Cyril of Alexandria
February 19th
"Happy is the soul that knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in all things!" - St. Peter Julian Eymard
February 26th
Day after day, Jesus builds up His Church by His Eucharistic presence. As St. Paul teaches, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1Cor 10:17). In the mystery of the Eucharist, Jesus draws us into the communion of divine life that is the Church. He prays at every Eucharist, as He prayed at the Last Supper, "Even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me" (Jn 17:21). He makes our life sacred with the Presence of God. (www.pattersondiocese.org - Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Patterson, NY)
March 4th
"When we work hard, we must eat well. What a joy, that you can receive Holy Communion often! It's our life and support in this life - Receive Communion often, and Jesus will change you into Himself." - Saint Peter Julian Eymard
March 11th
“He said: ‘I Myself am the Bread of life.’" We pray "My Shepherd" because His love is a personal love. Though He loves everyone with an infinite love, He loves you as if you were the only one in the world. The Blessed Sacrament is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who is present before you for no other reason than that He loves you. He is here to draw you closer to Himself, to deepen the love and friendship you have together with Him. This individual, personal love is described by Pope John Paul II when he said "Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love." - from the Book "Come to Me in the Blessed Sacrament".
March 18th
"Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the con¬ver¬sion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; conse¬quent¬ly, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues." St. Thomas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d.12, q.2, a.11 - St. Thomas Aquinas Feast Day – March 7th
March 25th
"Do not think that Jesus Christ is forgetful of you, since he has left you, as the greatest memorial and pledge of his love, himself in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
April 1st
"This is the wonderful truth, my dear friends: the Word, which became flesh two thousand years ago, is present today in the Eucharist," - Pope John Paul II
April 8th
"In each of our lives Jesus comes as the Bread of Life - to be eaten, to be consumed by us. This is how He loves us. Then Jesus comes in our human life as the hungry one, the other, hoping to be fed with the Bread of our life, our hearts by loving, and our hands by serving. In loving and serving, we prove that we have been created in the likeness of God, for God is Love and when we love we are like God. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
April 15th
“The Bread that we need each day to grow in eternal life, makes of our will a docile instrument of the Divine Will; sets the Kingdom of God within us; gives us pure lips, and a pure heart with which to glorify His holy name, " - Edith Stein
April 22nd
“I adore and venerate You as much as ever I can, though my love is so cold, my devotion so poor. Thank You for the good gift of this Your holy Body and Blood, which I desire to receive...," - St. Anselm (Archbishop and Doctor of the Church) - Feast Day April 21st
April 29th
"O inestimable charity! Even as You, true God and true Man, gave Yourself entirely to us, so also You left Yourself entirely for us, to be our food, so that during our earthly pilgrimage we would not faint with weariness, but would be strengthened by You, our celestial Bread. O man, what has your God left you? He has left you Himself, wholly God and wholly Man, concealed under the whiteness of bread. O fire of love! Was it not enough for You to have created us to Your image and likeness, and to have recreated us in grace through the Blood of Your Son, without giving Yourself wholly to us as our Food, O God, Divine Essence? What impelled You to do this? Your charity alone. It was not enough for You to send Your Word to us for our redemption; neither were You content to give Him us as our Food, but in the excess of Your love for Your creature, You gave to man the whole divine essence..." - St. Catherine of Siena - Feast Day, April 30th
May 6th
"Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration." - Mother Teresa
"The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself." - St. Peter Julian Eymar
May 13th
""Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament BECAUSE OF HIS INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU!" "Behold, I will be with you always even to the end of the world," because "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is My affection for you." (Mt 28:20; Jer 31:3) - from "One Lord, One Body, One People"