July 5
“Anyone who approaches this august sacrament with special devotion…experiences how great is the value of communing with Christ…for there is nothing more effective for advancing on the road to holiness.”
-Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei
July 5
“Anyone who approaches this august sacrament with special devotion…experiences how great is the value of communing with Christ…for there is nothing more effective for advancing on the road to holiness.”
-Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei
July 4
“O God, Who in a wonderful Sacrament
hast bequeathed to us the memorial of Thy Passion,
Grant we pray that we may so venerate
the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood,
as to continually experience within us the fruit of Thy Redemption. Amen.”
-Prayer of St. Peter Julian Eymard
July 3
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again.”
-St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to Smyrnaeans (110 AD)
July 2
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
-John 6:51
July 1
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”
-1 Corinthians 11:23 – 30
Is a Mass offered for one who is still living more powerful than a Mass celebrated for that person after he or she has died? I often wondered about that, so I wrote to Father Edward McNamara, a noted Professor of Liturgy, at the Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. This is how he responded to my inquiry.