Within the Octave

Invitatory (Psalm 94 [95])

Invitatory. Let us adore Christ the king, the lord of all peoples, who gives nourishment of the spirit to those who eat. [Ps 21 (22):29]

Sung to Christum Regem regum adoremus from the feast of St. Andrew.

Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our savior. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms. * ℟. Ant.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods. For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his. * ℟. Ant.

For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us. For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * ℟. Ant.

Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works. * ℟. Ant.

Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: these always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. * ℟. Ant.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. * ℟. Ant.

Benedictus

Luke 1:68—79

Antiphon for the Benedictus. I am the living bread who descended from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, [alleluia]. [John 6:51–52]

Sung to Pax aeterna from the feast of the Dedication.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; * because he has visited and wrought the redemption of his people:

and has raised up a horn of salvation to us, * in the house of David his servant:

as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, * who are from the beginning:

salvation from our enemies, * and from the hand of all that hate us:

to perform mercy to our fathers, * and to remember his holy testament,

the oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, * that he would grant to us,

that being delivered from the hand of our enemies, * we may serve him without fear,

in holiness and justice before him, * all our days.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: * for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:

to give knowledge of salvation to his people, * unto the remission of their sins:

through the bowels of the mercy of our God, * in which the dawn from on high has visited us:

to enlighten those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: * to direct our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. * ℟. Ant.

Magnificat

Luke 1:46–55

Antiphon for the Magnificat. He has made a memorial of his wonderful works, the gracious and merciful Lord. He has given food to those who fear him, alleluia. [Ps 110 (111):4–5]

Sung to Paradisi porta from the feast of St. Mary.

My soul * magnifies the Lord.

And my spirit has rejoiced * in God my Savior.

Because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid; * for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Because he who is mighty has done great things to me; * and holy is his name.

And his mercy is from generation unto generations, * to those who fear him.

He has showed might in his arm: * he has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He has put down the mighty from their seat, * and has exalted the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things; * and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has received Israel his servant, * being mindful of his mercy:

as he spoke to our fathers, * to Abraham and to his seed forever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. * ℟. Ant.

[All else is done as on the day itself.]

[Day 2—Friday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 57; Augustine, In Iohannis, tr. 26, n. 13]

Christ is the bread, of which whoever eats, lives forever. (BNF 1143 provides 31 lectiones for the octave, but without designations for how the readings should be divided according to the octave days. The manuscript BNF 755 (from the second half of the 13th century) designates three readings for each day of the octave but does not include the first 10 readings from the BNF 1143 manuscript as part of the octave. A partial solution, however, may be found by following the divisions of the manuscript KB 70.E.4 (The Hague, National Library of the Netherlands): the last 9 readings should be reserved for the final day of the octave, leaving 22 readings for the remaining 6 days. These remaining readings, then, can be distributed in sets of three to the remaining days, with the exception of Sunday, which should indeed have 9 readings, but by this division is left with only 7. Since there were several reorganizations of the readings, however, it is difficult to be certain which readings should be paired with each day; the divisions below are therefore somewhat conjectural.) About this he himself said: and the bread which I will give him is my Flesh, for the life of the world (John 6:52). He prescribes in what way it is bread for the life of the world, not only in accordance with the word, by which all things live, but in accordance with the assumed flesh. His human flesh, which was dead to sin, united to the flesh of the world, incorporated, made one with it, lives by his Spirit, just as the body lives by its spirit. Whoever is not truly of the body of Christ, does not live by the Spirit of Christ.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 60; attr. Augustine, De Trinitate]

We call the Body and Blood of Christ that which, taken from the fruits of the earth, and blessed by sacred prayer, we properly consume for spiritual salvation, in memory of the Passion of the Lord. Since it is brought into its visible form by the hand of man, it is not sanctified to be such a great sacrament, except by the Holy Spirit working invisibly, since God makes all these things which come about from the body’s movements in that work.

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 63]

This is the sacrament of piety, it is both a sign of unity and a bond of love. Whoever wishes to live, let him approach and believe, let him consume this food and drink. He wishes the society of the body and its members to be understood, because it is among the things predestined in/for the Church. (The text of Gratian seems to vary here from the text of the sources.)

[Gratian, De consecratione, can. 48; attr. Augustine, Sentences of Prosper; actually: Lanfranc, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ch. 10]

This is what we say, what we work to prove in every way, that the sacrifice of the Church is composed of two things, consists of two things, of the visible species of the elements, and of the invisible Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, both of the sacrament and of the object (res) of the sacrament, that is, of the Body of Christ, just as the person of Christ comprises and is composed of God and man, since Christ himself is truly God and truly man, because each thing contains in itself the nature and truth of those things of which it is composed. Thus the sacrifice of the Church is composed of two things, the sacrament and the object (res) of the sacrament, that is, the Body of Christ. There is therefore the sacrament and the object (res) of the sacrament, that is, the Body of Christ. His Flesh is what, hidden in the form of bread, we receive in the sacrament, and his Blood what we drink under the appearance and taste of wine. His flesh is the sacrament of his Flesh, and his blood the sacrament of his Blood. By his Flesh and Blood both invisible, understandable, spiritual, is signified the visible body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is touchable, full of the grace of all virtues and of divine majesty.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 48, continued]

Therefore, just as the celestial bread, which is truly the Flesh of Christ, is called in its own way the Body of Christ, although actually it is the sacrament of the Body of Christ, which visibly, which palpably, subject to death, was placed on the Cross, and just as it is called that sacrifice of the flesh, which is the suffering, death, and crucifixion of Christ at the priest’s hands, not because of the truth of the matter, but because of a symbolic mystery, so the sacrament of faith, which is called baptism, is faith.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 71; see Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ch. 9, lines 4–19]

This offering is repeated daily, although Christ having died once in the flesh through one and the same suffering of death, saved the world a single time, from which death rising again to life, death will have no more dominion over him. Indeed the wisdom of God foresaw this necessity for many reasons. First of all because we sin daily, at least in sins without which mortal infirmity it is not possible to live, because although all sins are pardoned in baptism, nevertheless the infirmity of sin still remains in the flesh. Hence the psalmist: bless the Lord, my soul, who forgives all your sins, who heals all your infirmities (Ps 102:2–3). And because daily we fall, daily Christ is mystically sacrificed for us, and the Passion of Christ is handed down in mystery, so that he who, by dying a single time, conquered death, might forgive daily the faults of recurring transgressions through the sacraments of the Body and Blood. Hence we pray: forgive us our sins (Matt 6:12). Because if we would say that we do not have sin, we delude ourselves, and truth is not within us (1 John 1:8).

[Day 3—Saturday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 71]

This mystery is repeated, indeed for the purpose of a commemoration of the Passion of Christ, just as he himself said: so often as you do this, do it in memory of me. Therefore, as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes (1 Cor 11:25–26). This is not to be understood as: “until the death of Christ comes,” because he will not die anymore, but “until the Lord himself comes for judgment.” In the meanwhile the death of Christ for the life of time must always be proclaimed to posterity, so that they may learn with what love he loved his own, who deigned to die for them, to whom we all should return an equivalence of love, because he loved us first, although we were sons of Gehenna, so that we, now liberated from death, might love him.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 50; attr. Augustine, De Trinitate]

Because by the death of the Lord we have been freed, we signify the memories of this event in eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood, which were offered up for us.

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 72; attr. Augustine; actually: Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ch. 4, lines 1–20]

Whether by symbolism or by truth the mystery of the chalice becomes a sacrament, truth tells: my Flesh truly is food, and my Blood truly is drink (John 6:56). Otherwise how will it be a great thing—the bread which I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world (John 6:52)—unless it be true flesh? But because it is not right that Christ be devoured with the teeth, he wanted this bread and wine truly in the ministry to become powerfully his Flesh and Blood by the consecration of the Holy Spirit, and daily to be sacrificed mystically for the life of the world, so that, just as his true flesh is created from a Virgin through the Holy Spirit without intercourse, through the same Holy Spirit the same Body of Christ may be mystically consecrated from the substance of bread and wine. The Body of Christ is both truth and a symbol. Truth when the Body and Blood of Christ is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit and by his own power, from the substance of bread and wine. The symbol is that which is perceived externally.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 72, continued]

Within the Catholic Church, in the mystery of the Body of Christ, nothing greater by a good priest, nor inferior by a bad priest is accomplished, because it is accomplished, not by the merit of the one consecrating, but by the Word of the Creator, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. If it were by the merit of the priest, it would in no way pertain to Christ. Now however, just as it is he himself who baptizes, so it is he himself who, through the Holy Spirit, makes it his Flesh, and changes wine into his Blood. Hence the priest: command, he says, these offerings to be carried up by the hands of your holy angel to your sublime altar, in the sight of your divine majesty. (Roman Canon of the Mass, prayer Supplices te rogamus.)

How is it that he demands these offerings be brought into the light, if not that it be understood that these things are done in his priesthood? Therefore this offering is blessed, through which we are blessed, it is enrolled, through which men are enrolled in heaven, it is certified, through which we are deemed to be of the flesh of Christ, it is intelligent, through which we are freed from bestial understanding, it is accepting, (Roman Canon of the Mass, prayer Quam oblationem.) so that we who are displeasing to ourselves may become by it acceptable to his only Son. Nothing is more sensible than that, because we receive the likeness of his death in baptism, we also consume the likeness of his body and blood, so that truth may not be lacking in the sacrament, and that there be no mockery by pagans, that we drink the blood of a dead man.

[Day 4—Sunday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 72, conclusion]

It must be believed that the sacraments are produced by the words of Christ, by whose power they are created beforehand, by his word especially they are produced for the better. All the remaining things which the priest says, or which the group of the chorus sings, are nothing other than praises and thanksgivings, or even supplications, or prayers of the faithful.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 74; attr. Ambrose; see Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ch. 1, lines 46–55]

All things that the Lord wished, he did in heaven and on earth. And because he wished it, it was done. Thus, although it seems to be the form of bread and wine, these things, after consecration, must be believed to be nothing other than the Flesh of Christ and his Blood. Whence he himself spoke the truth to his disciples: this, he said, is my Flesh, for the life of the world (John 6:52).

And that I may speak more remarkably, it is clearly nothing other than what was born of Mary, and suffered on the Cross, and rose again from the tomb. This, I say, it is, and therefore it is the Flesh of Christ, which is offered for the life of the world even today, and when it is taken worthily, eternal life certainly is restored in us. This bread which we consume in mystery, I certainly understand to be that bread which was formed by the hand of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, and destroyed by the fire of his Passion on the altar of the Cross. The bread of the angels has become the food of men. Whence he himself said: I am the living bread, who descended from heaven (John 6:51). And again: the bread which I will give is my Flesh, for the life of the world (John 6:52).

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 13; attr. Augustine]

To receive Communion of the Eucharist daily I neither praise nor censure. I urge Communion on all Sundays. If however the soul is in a state of sin, I say that he is more to be burdened by receiving the Eucharist, than to be purified. And therefore [if] someone is consumed by sin, but yet does not have a wish to sin further, let him receive Communion in tears and prayers, and, confident in the mercy of the Lord, let him approach the Eucharist undaunted and secure. But I say this to the one whom mortal sins do not burden. Thus one person says that the Eucharist must not be received daily, another asserts that it be done daily, let each one do what he conscientiously believes must be done according to his own faith. Nor did either of them put himself before the other, Zacheus and that centurion, when one of them gladly received the Lord into his house, the other said to the Lord: Lord I am not worthy that you should enter my house (Matt 8:8), both honoring the Savior, although not in one way, both having been pitied for their sins, both having attained mercy. To this it applies that manna tastes in the mouth of each according to his own desire.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 14; attr. Ambrose, De sacramentis]

If, however often the Blood of Christ is poured out, it is shed for the remission of sins, I ought always to receive it, so that always my sins may be forgiven.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 24; attr. Sergius]

I who always sin, ought always to have a remedy. Those who live wickedly in the Church, and do not cease to receive Communion, considering themselves to be purified by such Communion, let them learn that they acquire nothing for their purification, as the prophet says: how is it that my beloved commits crimes in my house? Do the consecrated pieces of Flesh take away from you your maliciousness? (Jer 11:15). As the Apostle [says]: let a man examine himself, he said, and thus eat of that bread and drink from that chalice (1 Cor 11:28).

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 56; attr. Ambrose, De sacramentis]

This bread is not that which goes into the body, but the bread of eternal life, which supports the substance of our soul. This is a daily bread, receive it daily, so that daily it may be of benefit to you. Live in such a way that you may be worthy to receive it.

Reading 4

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 66; attr. Augustine, De Trinitate]

Sacred things can be harmful to the wicked. They work to the salvation of the good, to the judgment of the wicked. Hence the Apostle: he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:29). Not because that thing is evil, but because the evil one receives evilly what is good. It was not an evil morsel which was given by the Lord to Judas. The doctor gives health. But because he who was unworthy received it, he received it to his destruction.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 67]

Let the steward not forbid the rich of the land (Ps 22:29) from eating at the Lord’s table, but let him advise them to fear the bringer of judgment.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 68]

Just as Judas, when Christ handed a morsel to him, did not receive evil but badly received good, gave room to the devil, so when someone unworthily consumes the Body of Christ, it is not the case that because he is wicked, it is wicked, or because he does not receive it to his benefit he receives nothing. The Body and Blood of the Lord nonetheless was in them, to whom the Apostle said: whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:29).

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 46; attr. Augustine]

Many receive the Body unworthily, about whom the Apostle said: he who eats and drinks from the chalice of the Lord unworthily, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:29). But how must Christ be eaten? He himself described the way: he who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood worthily*, remains in me and I in him* (John 6:57), and if he receives the sacrament unworthily, he obtains great torment.

Reading 5

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 35, beginning; attr. Eusebius]

Because the Lord (This is where the readings for the Octave begin in BNF 755 (beginning with the 2nd day of the octave).) was going to take away from our eyes his assumed body and place it in the heavens, it was necessary that, on the day of the Last Supper, he consecrate a sacrament of his Body and Blood for us, so that what once was offered as ransom might be worshiped continuously through the mystery, so that because daily and indefatigably redemption flowed for the well-being of men, it might be a perpetual offering of redemption, and so that everlasting sacrifice might live in memory, and so the truly unique and perfect sacrifice might always be present in grace, appraised by faith, not by money, and valued not by external appearance but by internal influence. Whence heavenly authority justly confirms, because: my Flesh truly is food, and my Blood truly is drink (John 6:56). Therefore, let every doubt of disbelief depart, because certainly he who is the giver of the gift, is himself witness of its truth. For the invisible priest converts visible creations into the substance of his Body and Blood by his word and secret power, saying: take and eat, this is my Body. And, when the blessing is repeated, take and drink, this is my Blood. Therefore just as at the command of the directing Lord suddenly from nothing there existed the heights of the heavens, the depths of the waters, the vastness of the earth, so by equal power in the spiritual sacraments, when goodness commands, the results obey.

Reading 6

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 35, conclusion]

Therefore ask yourself, you who were reborn in Christ, how much and in what way the beneficent power of divine blessing works, and how it ought not to be new and impossible for you, that earthly and mortal things are converted into the substance of Christ. Formerly you were estranged from life, banished from mercy, and from the path of salvation, dead inside, you were exiled. Suddenly, admitted to the laws of Christ and restored by his healthful ministries, you hastened over into the body of the Church, not by seeing but by believing, and from a son of perdition you merited to become adopted of God by hidden goodness, though remaining the same in outward form, you were made greater invisibly, without the addition of anything. Although you were one and the same you stood out as much different by your advances in the faith.

On the outside nothing was added, and all was changed on the inside, and thus man was made the son of Christ, and Christ was formed in the mind of men. Just as, therefore, without actual feeling, with past worthlessness put aside, you have suddenly assumed a new worth, and just as, because God cured in you the wound, washed away the stains, wiped away the blemish, these things are believed not by your eyes but by your feelings, and so when you come to worship at the altar, to be satisfied with spiritual food, look with faith upon the holy Body of your Lord and his Blood, honor and marvel at them, hold them in your soul, take them in heart’s hand, and especially with heart partake fully of the nourishment of man’s soul.

Reading 7

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 53; attr. Ambrose]

In Christ the sacrifice was offered once, potent for eternal salvation. What therefore can we say? Do we not offer every day? Yes, but for the commemoration of his death, for the sacrifice is one and not several. Why is it one and not several? Because Christ was sacrificed once. This sacrifice is an imitation of that one, itself and always itself. Hence this is one and the same sacrifice. Some may say that because he is offered in many places, there are many Christs. In no way! Christ is but one everywhere, both here and there, existing in full. Just as, because wherever he is offered, there is one body and not many bodies, so there is one sacrifice. The priest however is the one who offered the sacrifice which cleanses us, [and] we offer the same now, that when offered then was not to be consumed. What we do is done in commemoration of that which was done. Do this, he said, in my memory (Luke 22:19).

[Day 5—Monday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 1]

Among the offerings (These readings are for the 3rd Day in BNF 755. In KB 70.E.4, what are labeled here as Reading 1 and Reading 2 of Day 5 are labeled as “L. ii” and “L. iii” respectively, so it is possible they may instead belong to the Sunday readings.) of the sacraments which are presented during the solemnities of the Masses, let bread alone as well as wine mixed with water be offered in sacrifice. There must not be, in the chalice of the Lord, either wine alone, or water alone, but both mixed, because it is read that both flowed from his side in his Passion (cf. John 19:34).

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 7]

The chalice of the Lord ought to be offered with wine and water mixed, because we see the people represented by the water, the Blood of Christ shown by the wine. Therefore, when wine and water are mixed in the chalice, the people are joined with Christ, and the crowd of believers are combined and united with him in whom they believe, and this combination and union of water and wine is mixed in the chalice of the Lord in such a way that the mixture cannot be separated. For if one offers wine alone, the Blood of Christ comes into being without us. If the water is alone, the people come into being without Christ. Therefore, when the cluster of grapes is offered alone, in which the power of wine alone is represented, the sacrament of our health is neglected, which is signified by water.

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 83; attr. Ambrose, De sacramentis] (Much of this reading is not found in Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 83.)

Melchizedech showed the rite of this sacrament, when he offered Abraham bread and wine. But you say to me: how therefore did Melchizedech offer bread and wine alone? Why is an admixture of water preferred? Learn this reason. First of all it was a symbol, which preceded before at the time of Moses. Because, when the Jewish people thirsted, and they complained that it was not possible for water to be found, the Lord ordered Moses to touch the rock with a rod, he touched the rock and the rock poured out a great wave, just as the Apostle says: they drank from the rock which followed them. The rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). It was not an immobile rock that followed the people. And you, drink, so that Christ may follow you. Behold the mystery. Moses is the prophet. The rod is the word of God. The priest touches the rock with the word of God, and water flows, and the people of God drink. Therefore the priest touches the chalice, he pours water into the chalice, and it springs into eternal life, and the people of God drink, who followed the grace of God.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 83]

You have learned this; (KB 70.E.4, which generally labels each readings in sets of three, instead labels this reading as the first reading, but without second or third readings following. If this reading were to supply the readings for Monday, then the previous nine readings would remain available to be allotted for the Sunday Matins. Note, however, that this conjecture would split up the sets of three found in BNF 755.) therefore learn something else. At the time of the Passion of the Lord, when the great Sabbath was at hand, because our Lord Jesus Christ was still alive on the Cross, along with the thieves, soldiers were sent to kill them. On approaching, they found our Lord Jesus Christ dead. Then one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and from his side water and blood flowed. Water to purify, blood to redeem. Why from his side? Because where there is guilt, there is grace. Guilt through woman, grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 2; attr. Cyprian]

Thus the chalice of the Lord is not water alone and wine alone, unless both are combined, just as the Body of the Lord cannot be flour alone, unless it is united and joined, and made firm into the structure of one thing.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 5]

In the sacrament of the Body and Blood, nothing more is offered, than that which our Lord himself passed on to us, that is, bread and wine mixed with water, nor is anything more offered in sacrifices, than what comes from grapes and grain.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 4; attr. Pope Martin]

These three are one in Christ Jesus. This sacrifice is an offering to God in the aroma of sweetness.

[Day 6—Tuesday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 82, beginning; attr. Hillary, De Trinitate]

The Father in Christ, (Day 6 readings are designated for the 4th Day in BNF 755.) and Christ in us, make us as one in them. If truly Christ took on the flesh of our body, and that man is truly Christ, we also truly consume the Flesh of his Body in a mystery, and through it we will be one, because the Father is in him, and he is in us. For how is the unity of will claimed, when in the sacrament the substance is of nature, and the sacrament of unity is perfect? It is not in the human or worldly sense that we must speak about these things, and not by violence must the foolish utterance of divine words, hostile to salvation, as well as the perversity of intelligence be eliminated. Concerning the natural truth or unity of Christ in us, what we say, we will say foolishly and impiously, unless what we say we have learned from him. He himself said: my Flesh truly is food, and my Blood truly is drink. He who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood, remains in me and I in him (John 6:56–57).

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 82, continued]

Concerning the truth of the Flesh and Blood, no room for ambiguity remained. Now indeed, according to both the profession of the Lord himself and our faith, it is truly Flesh, and it is truly Blood, and they, eaten and drunk, cause both us to be in Christ and Christ in us. Therefore he himself is in us through the Flesh. That, moreover, we are in him through the sacrament of the union of Flesh and Blood, he himself testifies, saying: you indeed will see me, because I live, you too will live, because I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:19–20). If he wished only the unity of will to be understood, as the heretics claim, why did he detail a specific degree and series of unity to be gone through, except that he might be believed to be present in the Father through the nature of his divinity, and we, consequently to be in him through his physical birth, and he in us through the mystery of the sacraments. And so perfect unity might instruct the mediator that, with us still in him, he remained in the Father, and, still in the Father, he remained in us, and in this way we would advance to unity, since we would also naturally exist in the one who is naturally in him on account of birth, and he naturally would remain in us.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 82, conclusion]

That this unity is naturally in us he himself has testified: whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood abides in me and I in him (John 6:57). For he will not be in anyone except in the one in whom he already was, having taken upon himself the flesh of him who had eaten his Flesh. Just as, he said, the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, whoever shall eat my Flesh will live through me (John 6:58). Just as he lives through the Father, we likewise live through his Flesh. This therefore is the cause of our life, that what abides in us we have on account of Christ’s Flesh, living through him, by virtue of him living through the Father. If therefore we naturally live through him according to his flesh, that is, having acquired the nature of his flesh, how does he not have naturally, through the Spirit, the Father in himself, since he lives through the Father? The Body of Christ, which is consumed at the altar, is a symbol, since bread and wine is seen outwardly. It is truth when the Body and Blood of Christ is in truth believed within.

[Day 7—Wednesday]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 73, beginning; attr. Gregory]

This salutary sacrifice (These readings are designated for the 5th Day in BNF 755.) renews for us that death of the only begotten Son through mystery, who, rising from the dead, dies no more—death will have no more dominion over him (Rom 6:9)—nevertheless, living immortally and incorruptibly in himself, he dies again in this ministry, and his Body is consumed everywhere, his flesh suffers for the salvation of the people, his Blood now is poured out, not into the hands of the unfaithful, but into the mouths of the faithful. Consequently let us think of what nature is this sacrifice, which always imitates the Passion of the only begotten Son for our absolution. For who of the faithful can have doubt that, in that hour of sacrifice, at the voice of the priest the heavens are opened, and in that mystery of Jesus Christ the choruses of angels are present, the highest and lowest are joined together, made one out of invisible and visible things? At one and the same time and moment, he said, the same is both carried off into heaven, by the ministry of the angels to be joined to the Body of Christ, and is seen before the eyes of the priest on the altar. (This citation is attributed to Pseudo-Alcuin’s Liber de divinis officiis.)

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 73, continued]

So great is the unity of the Church in Christ, that everywhere the bread of the Body of Christ is one, and the chalice of his Blood is one. For the chalice which the Catholic priest offers, is none other than that which the Lord entrusted to the apostles, because just as the divinity of the Word of God is one, which fills up the whole world, so, notwithstanding the fact that it is consecrated in many places and on innumerable days, there are not many bodies of Christ, nor many chalices, but one Body of Christ, and one Blood with it, which he obtained in the womb of the Virgin, and which he gave to the apostles. For the divinity of the Word fills that which is everywhere, and unites it and is the reason why, just as it is one, so also his body is one in truth. Hence it must be observed, that, whether several or fewer, whoever partakes of it, all consume equally the Body of Christ completely whole, both generally all, and specifically each one.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 73, conclusion]

What you must believe is called the mystery of faith, because our salvation rests on it. Looking out for us, our Lord gave us this sacrament of salvation, so that, because we sin daily, and he cannot die any more, through this sacrament we might obtain remission. Daily he himself is truly eaten and drunk, but he remains whole and living and immaculate. And so it is a great and fearful mystery, because one thing is seen and another understood. But although the mystery is one, it is called the Body and Blood, it has the appearance of bread and wine, through the Lord’s doing, because we are not used to eating crude flesh and drinking blood.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 84; attr. Ambrose, De sacramentis]

Just as our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Son of God, not in the manner that men are, through grace, but just as a son is the substance of the father, so it is the true Flesh of Christ, as he himself said, which we receive, and true Blood is drink. I am, he said, the living bread, who descended from heaven (John 6:51). But his flesh did not descend from heaven. How, therefore, did the living bread descend from heaven? Because the same Lord Jesus is a sharer of divinity and flesh, and you who receive the Flesh of his divine substance, participate in that food.

[Day 8—The Octave Day]

Reading 1

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 36, beginning; attr. Augustine]

Because he died for us, (In BNF 755, the following 9 readings comprise the 6th–8th days of the octave; KB 70.E.4 has 3 sets of 3 readings, but another hand has numbered them 1–9 and labeled this reading as the start of the 8th day.) the Lord gave his Blood and Body to us in this sacrament, which also makes us his own. For we have become his body, and through his mercy we are what we receive. Remember that you did not exist, and that you were born and you were brought together to the Lord’s altar, and you were formed by the labor of cows, that is, of proclaiming angels. When you were catechumens, you were brought down, you were kept in the barn, you gave your names, and you accepted being ground by fastings and exorcisms. (Corrigan’s translation has been modified here.) After you came to the water, you were sprinkled, and you became the Lord’s bread. Behold what you have received. Just as you see that which was made is one, so you will be one, and you shall be faithful, namely by holding one faith, one hope, individual charity. Heretics, when they receive this sacrament, receive testimony against themselves, because they seek division, while this bread proclaims unity. Thus wine was in many grapes, and now it is one. This is wine in its origin, it is that chalice after the pressure of the grape press, and, after those fasts, after labors, after humility and contrition, now in the name of the Lord, in the same way, you come to the chalice of Christ, and you are at the table, and you are at the chalice with us. Together we consume this, together we drink, because together we live.

Reading 2

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 36, conclusion; attr. Augustine, De sermone de infantibus]

In this way our Lord Jesus Christ showed us that he wished us to belong to him, he consecrated the sacrament of peace and of our unity at the table. Whoever receives the sacrament of unity, and does not keep the bond of peace, does not receive the sacrament for himself, but testimony against himself. It is in no way to be doubted by anyone that each of the faithful is a participant in the Body and Blood of the Lord from the time when he is made by baptism a member of Christ, and is not kept from the fellowship of that bread and cup even if he left this world before he could eat that bread and drink the cup, since he was already a part of the unity of the body. Certainly he is not deprived of participation in, and the benefit of, that sacrament, since found in him is the very thing which that sacrament testifies.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 58, beginning]

Those who eat and drink Christ eat and drink life. To consume it is to be refreshed, to drink it is to live. What is consumed visibly in the sacrament, in truth itself is consumed and drunk spiritually.

Reading 3

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 58, continued, overlapping with can. 75]

Christ is eaten, eaten he lives, because he arose, though slain. Nor, when we eat, do we make parts of him. For in the sacrament the situation is the following. The faithful know, when they eat the Flesh of Christ, that everyone receives his share. He is eaten in the sacrament in parts, yet he remains entirely whole in heaven. He is eaten in the sacrament in parts, yet he remains entirely whole in your heart. He was one with the Father, when he came into the virgin, he filled her, but he did not withdraw from him. He became Flesh, so that men might consume him, yet he remained one with the Father, so that he might nourish the angels.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 70]

The Lord invites his servants, and serves to them himself as food. Who dares to consume his Lord? Nevertheless he said: whoever eats me, lives according to me (John 6:58). When he is eaten, life is eaten, and he does not die that he might be eaten, but to make the dead live. When he is eaten, he refreshes, but he does not perish.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 75]

Therefore let us not fear, brothers, to eat this bread, lest by chance we finish it, and afterwards we do not discover what we eat.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 58, continued]

What appears to be bread and cup is indeed what the eyes report. Because faith demands to be taught, the bread is the Body of Christ, and the chalice is the Blood. These things are called sacraments, because in them one thing is seen, and something else understood. What is seen has a corporeal substance, what is understood has spiritual benefit.

Reading 4

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 8; attr. Pope Alexander]

Nothing in sacrifices can be greater than the Body and Blood of Christ, nor is any oblation more powerful than this, but it surpasses all, which, with a pure conscience, must be offered to the Lord, and consumed with a pure heart, and must be venerated by all. And just as it is better than others, so it ought to be better worshipped and venerated.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 22; attr. Pope Sergius]

The Body of the Lord is of three forms: the part of the offering put in the chalice at Mass shows the body of Christ which has now risen; the part consumed, still walking on the earth; and the part on the altar, remaining at the end of Mass, the body in the sepulcher, because the bodies of the saints will be in the sepulchers until the end of time.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 37; attr. Augustine, Sentences of Prosper]

When the host is broken, when the Blood from the chalice is poured out into the mouths of the faithful, what else is designated than the sacrifice of the body of the Lord on the Cross, and of his blood gushing from his side?

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 39; attr. Ambrose, De catecizandis]

The bread and chalice become mystical for us not by an uncertain, but a definite, consecration. What consequently happens for us is not born. Although it be bread and chalice, it is the food of resurrection.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 40; attr. Ambrose, De officiis]

Before the blessing it is called one species, after the blessing it is designated the Body of Christ. Christ is in that sacrament. Whoever shall have eaten this Body, let there be for him the remission of sins.

Reading 5

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 40; attr. Pope Leo the Great]

In that symbolic distribution (No indication is given in BNF 1143 that a separate reading begins here, but there is such an indication given in KB 70.E.4.) of his spiritual inheritance, this is shared, this is consumed, so that, receiving the strength of heavenly food, we may be transformed into the flesh of the very one who became our flesh. This is the food of refreshment, this is the food of blood. Just as the Flesh of Christ truly is food, so his Blood truly is drink. It is the same Body of which it is said: my Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink (John 6:56). Around this body there are eagles, which fly around on spiritual wings (cf. Luke 17:37). Wherefore we eat the Body of Christ, so that we may be participants in eternal life.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 41; attr. Augustine]

In the appearance of bread and wine that we see, we honor the invisible things, that is, his Flesh and Blood. Nor do we similarly perceive these two species in the way we perceived them before consecration, since we honestly say that they are bread and wine before consecration, which nature fashioned, but after consecration they are truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ, which the blessing has consecrated.

Reading 6

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 43; attr. Ambrose, De officiis]

Perhaps you may say: in what way is this true flesh, in what way true blood, because I do not see the similarity to flesh, I do not see the reality of blood? First of all I told you about the word of Christ, which works so that it can change and convert the divisions and designs of nature. Afterwards his apostles did not endure the word of Christ, but hearing that he would give his Flesh to eat, and his Blood to drink, they backed away. Only Peter said: you have words of eternal life, and how can I withdraw from you? (John 6:69). So that, therefore, more might not say this, and so that there might not be any such bristling at blood, but that the grace of the Redeemer might remain, for those reasons you receive the sacrament under a certain likeness, but really you obtain nature, glory, and strength. I am, he said, the living bread, who descended from heaven (John 6:51).

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 11, ch. 62 (3)]

There are three reasons why Christ transmitted his Flesh and Blood under a different appearance, and instituted their consumption successively, namely: so that faith, which concerns those things that are not seen, might have value, because faith does not have value, for that which human reason gives proof. And so the soul might not shrink from what the eye perceives, because we are not accustomed to eat raw flesh and blood. Because it is not right for Christ to be eaten with the teeth, he commended his Body and Blood to us in the mystery. And so that nothing of the Christian religion might be reviled by unbelievers.

Reading 7

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 11, ch. 62 (3) continued; attr. Augustine]

There is nothing more sensible (In BNF 755, this reading begins the readings for the last day of the octave.) than that we should consume the likeness of blood. So that in this way both truth may not be lacking, and no mockery may be made by the pagans, that we drink the blood of the dead.

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 11, ch. 63 (4)]

But why is it consumed under two species, since Christ is substantially one whole? So that he might be shown to have assumed all of human nature, in order that he might redeem all of it. Bread refers to the flesh, wine to the soul, because wine affects the blood, in which the seat of the soul is said to be by physicians. For that reason, therefore, it is celebrated under two species, so that the taking on of soul and body may be shown in Christ, and the liberation of both, may be shown in us.

[attr. Ambrose]

What we take in is good for the preservation of the body and the soul, because the Flesh of Christ is offered for the health of the body, his Blood for our soul, just as Moses prefigured. Flesh, he said, is offered for our body, Blood for the soul, (Pseudo-Ambrose, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, ch. 11, verse 26 (PL 17:243).) but yet what is good for both is consumed in each food, because the complete Christ is consumed under each species.

Reading 8

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 8, ch. 54 (7)]

Furthermore that visible species is a sacrament of two natures, because it represents each one, and it bears each one’s stamped out likeness. For just as bread above all other foods refreshes and sustains the body, and wine elates and inebriates man, so the Flesh of Christ more than other gifts spiritually refreshes and satiates the inner man.

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 8, ch. 48 (1)]

Hence it is excellently called “Eucharist,” that is “good grace,” because in this sacrament there is not only an increase of virtue and grace, but he, who is the font and origin of all grace, is wholly consumed.

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 8, ch. 54 (7)]

That which is the unity of the faithful has a similarity with the sacred event, because just as one bread is made from many grains, and wine flows from many grapes into one, so the ecclesiastical unity exists from many faithful people. Hence the Apostle: we many are one bread and one body (1 Cor 10:17). One bread and one body is called the Church, for the reason that, just as bread is composed of many grains, and one body is composed of many members, so the Church is composed of many faithful people, love uniting it.

Reading 9

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 59]

To believe in Jesus Christ is to eat the bread, wine. He who believes, consumes invisibly, is satiated, because he is reborn invisibly. And whoever eats the Flesh of Christ, and drinks his Blood, has eternal life. Man eating lives through participation with the Son, that is through the unity of his Body and Blood, not just consuming the sacrament, just as evil ones do, but to the extent of participation with the spirit, so that he may abide as a member in the body of the Lord, and he may be invigorated by his Spirit, that is, as long as he follows his mandates. He, who at this time comes justified, arrives invisibly at the altar of God, whither the unjust does not come. He finds there life, who here understands its source.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 77; attr. Jerome]

Individuals receive Christ the Lord, and the whole is in the single portions, nor is he diminished in the single parts, but he offers himself whole in the individual pieces.

[Gratian, De consecratione, d. 2, can. 78; attr. Hillary]

Where there is a part of the body, there the whole is. The same circumstance exists in the Body of the Lord as in manna, which preceded it as a symbol, about which it is said: he who gathered more, did not have a greater amount, nor did the one who had acquired less, have less (Exod 16:18).

[Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. 4, d. 8, ch. 49 (2)]

That had been given long ago after the crossing of the Red Sea, where the Hebrews were freed from the drowned Egyptians. Thus, this heavenly manna ought to be furnished to none except the reborn (baptized). That actual bread led the ancient people through the desert to the promised land. This celestial bread conducts the faithful crossing the desert of this era into heaven. Hence it is rightly called “viaticum,” because, refreshing us on the way, it leads into the homeland.