Monday, April 27, 2009

"Do not work for food that perishes"

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit," preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum.
-- CCC 1392

(Art: Joos van Wassenhove. The Institution of the Eucharist, c.1474 (50 Kb); Oil on panel; Gallery of the Marches, Ducal Palace, Urbino, Italia.)

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