§1384The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "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."215

§2835This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,"123 that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth,…

§2837"Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day,"128 to confirm us in trust "without reservation." Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence.129 Taken literally (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it…

1. There is nothing worse, nothing more shameful, than gluttony; it makes the mind gross, and the soul carnal; it blinds, and permits not to see clearly. Observe, for instance, how this is the case with the Jews; for because they were intent upon gluttony, entirely occupied with worldly things, and without any spiritual thoughts, though Christ leads them on by ten thousand sayi…

2. But first I wish to remind you who are initiated of the response , which on that evening they who introduce you to the mysteries bid you make; and then I will also explain the saying of Paul: so this likewise will be clearer to you; we after all the other things adding this which Paul now says. And I desire indeed expressly to utter it, but I dare not on account of the unini…

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the bloo…

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.

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger. Calvin expounds the feeding of the five thousand as a sign pointing to Christ as the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Whoever eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks his blood has eternal life. Calvin insists this is spiritual feeding by fai…

The benefit of the Sacrament is this, that it is given for the remission of sins. For this reason it is called a food of souls, which nourishes and strengthens the new man. For by Baptism we are first born anew; but there remains besides the old vicious nature of flesh and blood in man, and there are so many hindrances and temptations of the devil and of the world that we often…

1. The Work is Taken Up After a Violent Interruption, Which Has Driven the Writer from Alexandria. He Addresses Himself to It Again, with Thanks for His Deliverance, and Prayer for Guidance. When a house is being built which is to be made as strong as possible, the building takes place in fine weather and in calm, so that nothing may hinder the structure from acquiring the need…

1. Jesus Comes to Capernaum. Statements of the Four Evangelists Regarding This. After this John 2:12-25 He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and there they abode not many days. And the passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and He found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers…

Chapter 1. Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows. I. The man who fears God seeks diligently in Holy Scripture for a knowledge of His will. And when he has become meek through piety, so as to have no love of strife; when furnished also with a knowledge of languages, so as not to be stopped by unknown words and forms of speech, and with the knowledge of …

Concerning the departing, the ancient canonical law is still to be maintained, to wit, that if anyone be at the point of death, he must not be deprived of the last and most indispensable Viaticum.

This the Eucharist has indeed in common with the rest of the sacraments — that it is a symbol of a sacred thing and a visible form of an invisible grace. But there is found in the Eucharist this excellent and peculiar thing, that the other sacraments have then first the power of sanctifying when one uses them, whereas in the Eucharist, before being used, there is the Author Him…

Q. What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured-out blood? A. It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and thereby to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more to Christ's blessed body. And so,…

The Supper of the Lord (which is called the Lord's Table, and the Eucharist, that is, a Thanksgiving) is ordinarily administered in the congregations of the saints, that in it the death of Christ may be held in memory, and his coming again expected, according to his own ordinance: "Do this in remembrance of me; for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim …

We believe Holy Baptism, which was instituted by the Lord, who said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5), to be necessary for salvation. For without it none is able to be saved. Baptism confers the remission of original and actual sin. Infants also, since they too are under original sin, and without Baptism are n…

In the Eucharist, the bread and wine are truly changed into the body and blood of Christ by the invocation of the Holy Spirit. What appears to the senses as bread is no longer mere bread but the body of Christ; what appears as wine is His precious blood. Cyril appeals to Christ's own words — "This is my body" — and to John 6, where Christ declares that His flesh is true food. T…