Bread of Life

BREAD OF LIFE
 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. (john 6: 50)
The miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. Jesus Christ celebrated the first Mass with His disciples at the Last Supper, the night before He died. He commanded His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The celebration of the Mass then became the main form of worship in the early Church, as a reenactment of the Last Supper, as Christ had commanded. Each and every Mass since commemorates Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross through the Holy Eucharist. Because the Mass “re-presents” (makes present) the sacrifice on Calvary, Catholics all around the world join together to be made present in Christ’s timeless sacrifice for our sins. There is something fascinating about continuing to celebrate the same Mass—instituted by Christ and practiced by the early Church—with the whole community of Catholics around the world…and in heaven.

THE REAL PRESENCE

Why does the Catholic Church believe Christ is really present in the Eucharist?
The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence is the belief that Jesus Christ is literally, not symbolically, present in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity. Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist because Jesus tells us this is true in the Bible:

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 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” - John 6:48-56
Furthermore, the early Church Fathers either imply or directly state that the bread and wine offered in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the doctrine of the Real Presence that Catholics believe today was believed by the earliest Christians 2,000 years ago!

This miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

BEING CATHOLIC

We are Catholic and are Proud of it...


"Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname. The one designates me, while the other makes me specific. Thus am I attested and set apart... When we are called Catholics it is by this appellation that our people are kept apart from any heretical name."
Saint Pacian of Barcelona, Letter to Sympronian, 375 A.D..


"Always remain close to the Catholic Church, because it alone can give you true peace, since it alone possesses Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the true Prince of Peace."
Blessed Padre Pio...

"It is because Christ is the sole canon of her preaching that the Church adheres so obstinately and so rigidly to His traditional message. It is for this reason that she can endure no modernism, no fraternizing with the spirit of the age."
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism...

"The Catholic Church understands its opponents, her opponents do not understand the Catholic Church."
Hilaire Belloc, the Great Heresies...

"People can relate to a crucified Christ displayed in Catholic Churches, as each one of us has a cross to carry. None of us can relate to a risen Christ, as none of us has ever risen from the dead."
Fr. Groeschel...

"Apologetic knowledge of the Catholic Church is deeper than the ocean depth and no one will ever reach the bottom."
Anonymous...

"While Protestants study the menu (the Bible), Catholics enjoy the meal."
Dr Scott Hahn...

"Dogmas of the Catholic Church are interconnected. If one is rejected, such as the infallibility of the Pope, then all are rejected."
Fr. Trujillo...

"Here is the shotgun analogy. Fire a Protestant shotgun and a Catholic shotgun at a wall. The pattern will be the opinions of those within, liberal, conservative, etc. With the Catholic, we always know who is at the center, the Pope and the Magisterium. With the Protestant, how can we determine who is in the center?"
Marcus Grodi, ex Protestant minister, now Catholic...

"You blind guides who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel."
Matthew 23:24...

"The Catholic faith does not teach what we used to think and vainly accused it of."
St. Augustine, Confessions, 6, 11, 400 A.D..

"For those who spread lies about the Catholic Church: their ignorance is their lack of knowledge, their stupidity is their wisdom, and their truth is falsehood."
Author Unknown...

"Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation."
St. Jerome Commentaries on Titus, 3, 10 386 A.D..

"Where Peter is, there is the Church."
St Ambrose of Milan, On twelve Psalms 381 A.D..

"A Christian man is Catholic while he lives in the body; cut off, he is made a heretic; the Spirit does not follow an amputated member."
Saint Augustine...

"The Catholic Church Always Has What The World Is Lacking."
G.K. Chesterton...

"When the world goes wrong, it proves that the Church is right."
G.K. Chesterton...

"It is contradictory for a Protestant to accept the Bible and reject the authority of the Catholic Church which gave it to him."
Anonymous...

"In attacking the Catholic Church, Protestants sever their own roots."
Author Unknown...

"Protestant Churches have songs and prayer. Catholic Churches have songs, prayer, and sacrifice."
Dr. Scott Hahn...

"No protestant should quote Scripture at all, for he has no means of knowing which books are inspired; Unless of course, he wants to accept the authority of the Catholic Church for that."
Fr. William Most...

"If you read the Bible with Catholic eyes, things will start popping out at you."
Author Unknown...

"Thanks to the Catholic Church, the authority and the integrity of the Bible was kept intact."
Author Unknown...

"Catholic beliefs for 2000 years have been affirmed by independent study."

"The fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church."

"Our Church is the fastest growing Church in the world. We have one billion Catholics in the world today." (1995)
Fr. Luke Zimmer...

Note! Now there are 1,070,000,000 Catholics as of April 2001. World Christian Encyclopedia

You must all follow the lead of the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed that of the Father; follow the presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence the deacons as you would God's commandment. Let no one do anything touching the Church, apart from the bishop. Let that celebration of the Eucharist be considered valid which is held under the bishop or anyone to whom he has committed it. Where the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not permitted without authorization from the bishop either to baptize or to hold an agape; but whatever he approves is also pleasing to God. Thus everything you do will be proof against danger and valid."
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrneans, 107 A.D..

"From what has been said, then, it seems clear to me that the true Church, that which is really ancient, is one; and in it are enrolled those who, in accord with a design, are just... We say, therefore, that in substance, in concept, in origin and in eminence, the ancient and Catholic Church is alone, gathering as it does into the unity of the one faith which results from familiar covenants, - or rather, from the one covenant in different times, by the will of the one GOD and through the one Lord, - those already chosen, those predestined by GOD who knew before the foundation of the world that they would be just."
Saint Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 202 A.D..

"It is therefore, the Catholic Church alone which retains true worship. This is the fountain of truth; this, the domicile of faith; this the temple of GOD. Whoever does not enter there or whoever does not go out from here, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation... Because, however, all the various groups of heretics are confident that they are the Christians, and think that theirs is the Catholic Church, let it be known: that is the true Church, in which there is confession and penance, and which takes a salubrious care of sins and wounds to which the weak flesh is subject."
Lactantius, The Divine Institutions, 304 A.D..

"Let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian."
St. Athanasius, Letter to Serapion of Thmuis, 359 A.D..

"I should not believe the Gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church."
 Saint Augustine of Hippo, Against the Letter of Mani, 397 A.D..

"This Church is Holy, the One Church, the True Church, the Catholic Church, fighting as she does against all heresies. She can fight, but she cannot be beaten. All heresies are expelled from her, like the useless loppings pruned from a vine. She remains fixed in her root, in her vine, in her love. The gates of hell shall not conquer her."
Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed, 6, 14, 395 A.D.


©Compiled by Bob Stanley, November 3, 2000
Updated September 3, 2001.

7 comments:

p159 said...

Stop entertaining those vain fears. Remember it is not feeling which constitutes guilt but the consent to such feelings. Only the free will is capable of good or evil. But when the will sighs under the trial of the tempter and does not will what is presented to it, there is not only no fault but there is virtue. -- Padre Pio

daveg4g said...

The devil strains every nerve to secure the souls which belong to Christ. We should not grudge our toil in wresting them from Satan and giving them back to God. -- St. Sebastian

a39greenway said...

When I am before the Blessed Sacrament I feel such a lively faith that I can't describe it. Christ in the Eucharist is almost tangible to me...When it is time for me to leave, I have to tear myself away from His sacred presence. -- St. Anthony of Claret

Tortoise said...

The Blessed Eucharist is the perfect Sacrament of the Lord's Passion, since It contains Christ Himself and his Passion. -- St. Thomas Aquinas

Anonymous said...

The Holy Rosary is the storehouse of countless blessings. -- Blessed Alan de la Roche

Anonymous said...

We are at Jesus' disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that's all right, everything is all right. We must say, "I belong to you. You can do whatever you like." And this ..is our strength, and this is the joy of the Lord. --Mother Teresa

Spence Ohana said...

These are great! Thanks for sharing!