Not as common bread or as common drink do we receive these.....We have been taught that the food that has been Eucharistized by the word of prayer, that food which by assimilation nourishes our flesh and blood, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the spiritual significance of the Eucharist, portraying it as more than just physical nourishment.
In this quote, Justin Martyr highlights the profound nature of the Eucharist, suggesting that it transcends ordinary food and drink by being a sacred representation of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. He teaches that through the act of prayer and faith, believers receive spiritual nourishment that is vital for their souls, illustrating the deep connection between the divine and the faithful in the pursuit of spiritual sustenance.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of faith, one might use this quote to illustrate the significance of spiritual food in the life of a believer.
We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools...now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the Crucified One....The more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.
Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself.
Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christian- even though they profess with the lips the teaching of Christ.
Now bring what we have into common stock, and communicate to everyone in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different tribe, now since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly, to the end that they may become partakers of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.
We expect to receive again our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we maintain that with God nothing is impossible.
Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
The essence of Buddhism is if you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others.
The dizziness in the face of les espaces infinis--only overcome if we dare to gaze into them without any protection. And accept them as the reality before which we must justify our existence. For this is the truth we must reach to live, that everything is and we just in it.
All central beliefs on human matters spring from a personal predicament.
Reason is a supple nymph, and slippery as a fish by nature. She had as leave give her kiss to an absurdity any day, as to syllogistic truth. The absurdity may turn out truer.
We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.