[Jesus] is the Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches, and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the faithful.
–Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 380-450)
When therefore we eat the holy flesh of Christ, the Savior of us all, and drink His precious blood, we have life in us, being made as it were, one with Him, and abiding in Him, and possessing Him also in us.
–Saint Cyril of Alexandria (378-444)
So, since Christ died for us, out of love, it follows that, when we offer the sacrifice in commemoration of his death, we are asking for love to be given us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We beg and we pray that just as through love Christ deigned to be crucified for us, so we may receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. And we ask that by that grace the world should be a dead thing in our eyes and we should be dead to the world, crucified and dead.
–Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (Fifth — Sixth Century)
At the Eucharist we receive what we are and we become what we receive.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Jesus Christ found a way by which He could ascend into Heaven and yet remain on the earth. He instituted the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist so that He might stay with us, and be the Food of our soul; that He might console us and be our Companion.
— Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
What the gift of love gives us is the chance to become in truth what we celebrate as a mystery in the sacrifice.
–Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (Fifth — Sixth Century)
