Prayers & Reflections for February 16

The Armor of God
Reflections and Prayers for Wartime

CHAPTER VII
The Eucharist

The memorial was instituted the night before He died, at what has since been
called "The Last Supper." Taking bread into His Hands, He said: "This is my body, which shall be delivered for you," that is, delivered unto death. Then over the chalice of wine, He said, "This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins."

Thus in an unbloody symbol of the parting of the Blood from the Body, by the separate consecration of Bread and Wine, did Christ pledge Himself to death in the sight of God and men, and represent His Death which was to come the next afternoon at three.

He was offering Himself as a Victim to be immolated, and that men might never forget that "greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends."

In order that this sacrifice would never be forgotten, He gave the divine command to the Church: "Do this for a commemoration of me" (Luke 22:19).

[Continued tomorrow]
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From:
The Armor of God
Reflections and Prayers for Wartime
by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen
(C) 1943, P.J. Kenedy & Sons