Is Christ Really Present in the Eucharist?

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So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. "

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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? (...) Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. "

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They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. "

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For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. "

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All shall be careful so that no unbeliever tastes of the eucharist, nor a mouse or other animal, nor that any of it falls and is lost. For it is the Body of Christ, to be eaten by those who believe, and not to be scorned. "

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As the prayer goes forward, we ask and say, Give us this day our daily bread. And this may be understood both spiritually and literally, because either way of understanding it is rich in divine usefulness to our salvation. (…) And therefore we ask that our bread — that is, Christ — may be given to us daily, that we who abide and live in Christ may not depart from His sanctification and body. "

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Having learned these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ... "

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Before it is consecrated, it is bread, but when the words of Christ have been added, it is the body of Christ. Therefore hear him saying: Take and eat ye all of it; for this is my body. And before the words of Christ it is a cup full of wine and water. When the words of Christ have operated, then and there it is made to be the blood of Christ which redeemed the people. "

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You ought to know what you have received, what you are about to receive, what you ought to receive every day. That bread which you can see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That cup, or rather what the cup contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. "

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You ought so to be partakers at the Holy Table, as to have no doubt whatever concerning the reality of Christ's Body and Blood. For that is taken in the mouth which is believed in Faith, and it is vain for them to respond Amen who dispute that which is taken. "

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Truly our life depends upon the Body of Christ, as the Lord Himself said: “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Therefore a man should change his life, if he wants to receive life, for if he does not change his life, he will receive it to his own judgment. Then he is corrupted by it more than he is healed; he is killed rather than given life. For thus the Apostle spoke: “He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body and blood of the Lord, eats and drinks a judgment on himself.” "

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The bread, because it strengthens the body, is thus called the body of Christ. The wine, because it acts on the blood in the body, is therefore referred to as the blood of Christ. However, although these things are visible, nevertheless, sanctified through the Holy Spirit, they pass over into the sacrament of the divine body. "

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The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens descends, but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's body and blood. "

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Understand that these spiritual realities that are indeed neither locally nor carnally before the sight are borne up to the heights of the divine majesty. Think then whether any corporeal thing could be more sublime since the substance of bread and wine is effectively and interiorly changed into the flesh and blood of Christ, so that after the consecration it is rightly believed to be truly the very flesh and blood of Christ and nothing other than Christ "

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On the outside they appear bread and wine, both in appearance and in taste; but they are truly, after the hallowing, Christ’s body and his blood through a spiritual mystery. "

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We believe that the earthly substances on the altar of the Lord, placed there for divine consecration by the priestly ministry, are ineffably, incomprehensibly, and wonderfully overturned by a heavenly power, and converted into the essence of the Body of the Lord, preserving the appearance and qualities of the species. [...] This is the faith that was held in ancient times and is now held by the Church, and has spread throughout the entire world by those of the Catholic name. "

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And so after the consecration the substance of bread and wine is not there, although the species remain, for the species of bread and wine are there, as indeed is their taste, so that “one thing is seen, another is understood." "

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His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been changed in substance, by God’s power, into his body and blood. "

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Some men accordingly, not paying heed to these things, have contended that Christ's body and blood are not in this sacrament except as in a sign, a thing to be rejected as heretical, since it is contrary to Christ's words. "

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The eye and the hand perceive the white substance of the bread… but the soul sees in that whiteness whole God and whole Man… the Body, the Soul, and the Blood of Christ. "

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O Lord, I come to You at Your command in simplicity of heart, in good, firm faith, with hope and reverence, and I truly believe that You are present here in this Sacrament, God and man. It is Your will that I receive You and unite myself to You in love. "

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And then from wondrous charity, which Christ shows to us in this sacrament, with which He, about to pass from the world [Jn. 13:1], left Himself as food in a wondrous manner, the most wondrous of all His miracles. "

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If any one denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema. "

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For in it we receive the blood of Our Saviour in his flesh, and his flesh in his blood; his blood being applied unto us by means of his flesh, his substance by his substance to our very corporal mouth; that we may know that so he will apply unto us his divine essence in the eternal feast of his glory. True it is, this favour is done unto us here really but covertly, under Sacramental species and appearances, whereas in heaven, the Divinity will give himself openly, and we shall see him face to face as he is. "

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Our holy faith teaches us, and we are bound to believe, that in the consecrated Host, Jesus Christ is really present under the species of bread. But we must also understand that He is thus present on our altars as on a throne of love and mercy, to dispense graces and there to show us the love which He bears us, by being pleased to dwell night and day hidden in the midst of us. "

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Upon receiving Holy Communion, the adorable blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins, and his flesh is really blended with ours. "

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We must remember that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ, past, present and future; that the Holy Eucharist is the highest development of the Incarnation and the mortal life of the Savior; that Jesus Christ therein gives us all graces. […] Happy the soul who knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist, and in the Eucharist all things else! "

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Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it. "

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The Church constantly draws her life from the redeeming sacrifice; she approaches it not only through faith-filled remembrance, but also through a real contact, since this sacrifice is made present ever anew, sacramentally perpetuated, in every community which offers it at the hands of the consecrated minister. "

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Through the Eucharist the Lord welcomes, sanctifies and blesses the bread and wine that we place on the altar, together with the offering of our lives, and he transforms them into the Body and Blood of Christ, the sacrifice of love for the salvation of the world. God unites himself to us by joyfully accepting what we bring, and he invites us to unite ourselves to him by likewise joyfully receiving and sharing his gift of love. "