§787From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and sufferings.215 Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: "Abide in me, and I in you.... I am the vine, you are the branches."216 and he proclaimed a mysterious and real …

§1391Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. the principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."223 Life in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so h…

§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,…

Chapter 25.—Whether Those Who Received Heretical Baptism, and Have Afterwards Fallen Away to Wickedness of Life; Or Those Who Have Received Catholic Baptism, But Have Afterwards Passed Over to Heresy and Schism; Or Those Who Have Remained in the Catholic Church in Which They Were Baptized, But Have Continued to Live Immorally,—May Hope Through the Virtue of the Sacraments for t…

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…

At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bon…

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,…

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…