Thereupon
Christ our Lord took into his venerable hands the bread, which lay upon the
plate, and interiorly asked the permission and cooperation of the eternal
Father, that now and ever afterwards in virtue of the words about to be uttered
by Him, and later to be repeated in his holy Church, He should really and truly
become present in the host, Himself to yield obedience to these sacred words.
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| Raising hid eyes toward heaven He consecrate the bread |
While making this petition He raised his eyes toward heaven with an expression
of such sublime majesty that He inspired the Apostles, the angels and his
Virgin Mother with new
and deepest reverence. Then He pronounced the words of
consecration over the bread, changing its substance into the substance of his
true body and immediately thereupon He uttered the words of consecration also
over the wine,
changing it into his true blood. As an answer to these words of
consecration was heard the voice of the eternal Father, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I delight,
and shall take my delight to the end of the world; and He shall be with men
during all the time of their banishment.” In like manner was this confirmed
by the Holy Ghost. The most sacred humanity of Christ, in the Person of the
Word, gave tokens of profoundest veneration to the Divinity contained in the Sacrament
of his body and blood. The Virgin Mother, in her retreat, prostrated Herself on
the ground and adored her Son in the blessed Sacrament with incomparable
reverence. Then also the angels of her guard, all the angels of heaven, and
among them likewise the souls of Enoch and Elijah, in their own name and in the
name of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets of the old law, fell down in adoration
of their Lord in the holy Sacrament.
All
the Apostles and disciples, who, with the exception of the traitor(Judas), believed
in this holy Sacrament, adored it with great humility and reverence according
to each one’s disposition. The great high priest Christ raised up his own
consecrated body and blood in order that all who were present at this first
Mass might adore it in a special manner, as they also did. During this
elevation his most pure Mother, saint John, Enoch and Elijah, were favoured
with an especial insight into the mystery of his presence in the sacred
species.
They understood more profoundly, how, in the species of the bread, was
contained his body and in those of the wine, his blood; how in both, on account
of the inseparable union of his soul with his body and blood, was present the
living and true Christ; how with the Person of the Word incarnate(Jesus Christ)
, was also therein united the Person of the Father and of the Holy Ghost; and
how therefore, on account of the inseparable existence and union of the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, the holy Eucharist contained the perfect humanity of the
Lord with the three divine Persons of the Godhead. All this was understood most
profoundly by the heavenly Lady and by the others according to their degree.
They understood also the efficacy of the words of the consecration, now endowed
with such divine virtue, that as soon as they are pronounced with the intention
of doing what Christ did at that time, by any priest since that time over the
proper material, they would change the bread into his body and the wine into
his blood, leaving the accidents to subsist in a new way and without their
proper subject. They saw, that this change would take place so certainly and
infallibly, that heaven and earth would sooner fall to pieces, than that the
effect of these words of consecration, when pronounced in the proper manner by
the sacerdotal minister of Christ, should ever fail.
