The Mass . . . the Eucharist . . . the Lord's Supper . . . the Blessed Sacrament . . . holy communion . . . transubstantiation -- what Catholics have believed and taught about this awesome reality, by whatever name it is called,...
The Feast of Corpus Christi, the body and blood of Christ, was instituted during the lifetime of Thomas Aquinas as a proclamation of faith in the real presence (aka transubstantiation) of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament. This selection, read annually on...
Holy or Maunday Thursday, the night of the Last Supper aka the Lord's Supper, the institution of the Holy Eucharist -- What did he mean when he said "This is my body and this is my blood" and "Do this in Memory of Me"? ...
In this beautiful prayer, read by the Church each year on June 9, the feast of St. Ephrem, we see the sacraments as a reflection of the light of the resurrection, an experience of the divine beauty which brings us delight....
Didymus the Blind shows how the spiritual fire and living water of the Holy Spirit give us new birth and transform us into new men and women, sharers in the divine glory and co-heirs with Christ....
St. Ambrose of Milan tells newly baptized Christians the meaning of the post-baptismal rites: the clothing with a white garment and the anointing with sacred chrism which we call the sacrament of confirmation or, in the Eastern churches, chrismation....
The eucharist is indeed the Lord's passover, insists Gaudentius of Brescia, in which we truly receive Christ's body under the appearance of bread and his blood under the appearance of wine....
This excerpt from a homily by St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, Italy clearly demonstrates a belief in the real, substantial presence of Christ's body and blood in the sacrifice of the Eucharist....
This Holy week reading on imitating Christ's death by being buried with him through baptism amplifies St. Paul's words in Romans 6:11 that in the sacrament of baptism we are baptized into Christ's death, being buried as it were with him under the saving waters...
This excerpt on the sacrament of baptism from St. Basil the Great’s book On the Holy Spirit (ca. AD 360) describes how baptism fulfills what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 about being born again in water and the Spirit. He also here outlines...