Primary

“I watched him as he came to the most solemn moment of the Mass. He bent over the altar, just a little, and holding up the Host, he spoke, quite slowly but so clearly. He said: ‘This is my Body which will be given up for you.’ Then he raised the Host above his head for all to see, went down on one knee to venerate (to honour) what with those words had been transformed. We all bowed, one with him in his silent worship. And so with the chalice filled with wine, but the words were different, of course. ‘This is my Blood, the new and everlasting covenant, shed for you and for the forgiveness of sins.’ Again we bowed.

Then he spoke again, indeed almost cried out, a note of triumph in his voice, ‘the mystery of faith’. What we had heard and seen were words beautifully said and actions elegantly performed. Something else within us carried us beyond what we had heard and seen the priest do. He had changed that bread into the Body of Christ, that wine into his Blood. We saw only bread and wine. Our senses could take us no further. Another gift, like a sixth sense, came to our rescue – faith.

Though we saw only bread and wine, we knew they were no longer such, but now his Body and his Blood, Christ’s Body, Christ’s Blood. We had discovered this mystery of our faith.”

The Mystery of the Cross pp. 110-120