Will Trade Sins for Food

How do we receive strength from The Blessed Sacrament?  By trading our sins for the restoration that is promised from the Food at the Altar(Jn 6:55).  

Christ's Body & Blood



Thomas brings the first chapter of Book IV to a close by bringing us to the reception of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.

11. Oh, the wonderful and hidden grace of this Sacrament, which only the faithful of Christ know, but unbelievers and such as are slaves to sin cannot experience.

In this Sacrament is conferred spiritual grace; lost virtue is repaired in the soul; and beauty disfigured by sin returns again.

And so great sometimes is this grace that from the abundance of devotion that is bestowed, not only the mind, but the frail body also feels a great increase of strength.

12. Yet it is much to be lamented and pitied that we should be so lukewarm and negligent as not to be drawn with greater affections to the receiving of Christ, in Whom consists all the hope and merit of those that shall be saved.

For He is our sanctification and our redemption; he is our comfort in our pilgrimage, and the eternal beatitude of the saints.
It is therefore much to be lamented that many regarded so lightly this saving mystery which rejoices heaven and preserves the whole world.

Oh, the blindness and hardness of the heart of man that does not more highly prize so unspeakable a gift; and from daily use falls into a disregard of it.

Thomas ends the chapter with a thought that hearkens back to his earlier chastisement about chasing after the bones of saints....why? When the Real Thing is as close as your local Church?

13. For if this most Holy Sacrament were only celebrated in one place, and consecrated by only one priest in the world, how great a desire would men have to go to that place, and to such a priest of God; that they might see the divine mysteries celebrated?


But now there are made many priests, and Christ is offered up in many places, that the grace and love of God to man may appear the greater, the more this Sacred Communion is spread throughout the world.

A prayer of Thanksgiving closes this all-important chapter.  Using Christ's own words of invitation so that we do not make any mistakes as to Who is doing the asking:

Thanks be to You, O Good Jesus, our Eternal Shepherd, Who has graciously agreed to feed us poor exiles with Your precious Body and Blood, and to invited us to receive these mysteries with the very words of Your own Mouth, saying: “Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” Matt 11:28.

Thank you for praying along with me.

Until next time, be Imitators of Christ!
tim