Corpus Christi Sunday, also known as the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, falls this year on Sunday, June 11.
Originally proposed as a feast day by St. Thomas Aquinas, this liturgical solemnity honors the Eucharist, reminding all to recognize that it is the true presence: the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
Whether the solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated through Mass or a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, it is important for Catholics to acknowledge the powerful, spiritual nature of the Eucharist. Here are 11 quotes from some beloved saints about the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.
St. Thomas Aquinas: “The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: It signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.”
St. Euphrasia: “To speak of the Blessed Sacrament is to speak of what is most sacred. How often, when we are in a state of distress, those to whom we look for help leave us; or what is worse, add to our affliction by heaping fresh troubles upon us. He is ever there, waiting to help us.”
St. Francis de Sales: “When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food.”
St. John Chrysostom: “It is not the man who is responsible for the offerings as they become Christ’s Body and Blood; it is Christ himself who was crucified for us. The standing figure belongs to the priest who speaks these words. The power and the grace belong to God. ‘This is my Body,’ he says. And these words transform the offerings.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “Since Christ himself has said, ‘This is my Body,’ who shall dare to doubt that it is his Body?”
St. Maximilian Kolbe: “If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: holy Communion.”
St. John Vianney: “I throw myself at the foot of the tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his master.”
St. Pio of Pietrelcina: “A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”
St. Angela of Foligno: “If we 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. Francis of Assisi: “O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble himself like this and hide under the form of a little bread, for our salvation.”
St. Augustine: “What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ, and the chalice is the blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction.”
This article was originally posted on CNA (Catholic News Agency)
