Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/291

 of God is transmuted into the body of the Word of God. This bread, as the Apostle says, is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, not that, as food, it passes into his body, but that it is instantly changed into the body of Christ, agreeably to what he said, This is my body. And therefore does the divine Word commix itself with the weak nature of man, that, by partaking of the divinity, our humanity may be exalted. By the dispensation of his grace, he enters, by his flesh, into the breasts of the faithful, commixed and contempered with their bodies," that, by being united to that which is immortal, man may partake of incorruption.” Orat. Catech. c. xxxvii. T. ii. p. 534-7.—He concludes this chapter by observing, that, “it is by virtue of the benediction that the nature of the visible species is changed into his body.” “ The bread also is, at first, common bread; but, when it has been sanctified, it is called and is made the body of Christ.” ''Orat. in Bapt. Christi, T. ii. p. 802.

St. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM, G. C.-He says of his sister, labouring under a grievous disorder: “Despairing of all other help, she has recourse to the universal physician - She falls down in faith before the altar, and calls upon him who is there adored.” Orat. 1. T. i. p. 186.-“ The law puts a staff in your hand, that you may not stagger in your souls, when you hear of the blood, passion and death of God. But rather without shame and doubting, eat the body, and