tity; for in the opinion of ecclesiastical writers, the water is changed into wine. Hence, these words of Pope Honorius: " A pernicious abuse has prevailed, for a long time, amongst you, of using in the holy sacrifice a greater quantity of water than of wine; whereas in accordance with the rational practice of the Universal Church, the wine should be used in much greater quantity than the water." [1] We have now treated of the only two elements of this Sacrament; and although some dared to do otherwise, many decrees of the Church justly enact that no celebrant offer any thing but bread and wine. [2]
We now come to consider the aptitude of these two elements to declare those things of which they are the sensible signs, In the first place, they signify Christ, the true life of the world; for our Lord himself has said: " My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." [3] As, therefore, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes to eternal life those who receive it with purity and holiness, with great propriety is this Sacrament composed principally of those elements which sustain life; thus giving the faithful to understand that the soul is nurtured with grace by a participation of the precious body and blood of Christ. These elements serve also to prove the dogma of the real presence. Seeing, as we do, that bread and wine are every day changed by the power of nature, into human flesh and blood, we are, by the obvious analogy of the fact, the more readily induced to believe that the substance of the bread and wine is changed, by the celestial benediction, into the real body and blood of Christ. [4] This admirable change also contributes to illustrate what takes place in the soul. As the bread and wine, although invisibly, are really and substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ, so are we, although interiorly and invisibly, yet really renewed to life, receiving in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the true life. Moreover, the body of the Church, although one, and undivided, consists of the union of many members, and of this mysterious union nothing is more strikingly illustrative than bread and wine. Bread is made from many grains, wine is pressed from many grapes, and thus are we too, although many, closely united by this mysterious bond of union, and made as it were one body.
The form The form to be used in the consecration of the bread, we now come to explain; not, however, with a view that the faithful should be taught these mysteries, unless necessity require it, (a knowledge of them is obligatory on ecclesiastics alone) but to obviate the possibility of mistakes on the part of the celebrant, through ignorance of the form; mistakes, were they to occur, as discreditable to the minister, as derogatory to the dignity of the divine mysteries. From the Evangelists Matthew and Luke, and also from the Apostle, we learn that the form of
