[Officium]
Octava Sanctissimi Corporis Christi

[Lectio4]
From the Sermons of the Blessed Patriarch of Jerusalem Cyril.
!Catechetical Lectures, 40
The teaching of the blessed Paul seemeth of itself enough instruction for you concerning those Divine Mysteries, whereof, if ye be made worthy, ye become therein, so to speak, of one Body and of one Blood with Christ. Paul saith that our Lord Jesus Christ, “the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread and, when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it unto His disciples, saying Take, eat this is My Body. After the same manner also He took the cup,” and gave thanks, “and said:” Take this, and drink it this is My Blood. Since therefore it is He Who hath definitely stated and said, touching that Bread “This is My Body” -who will dare any longer to doubt that It is so And since it is He again that hath absolutely affirmed and said, touching that cup “This is My Blood” who is he that will doubt any longer, or say that It is not His Blood

[Lectio5]
At the beginning of His ministry, at Cana in Galilee, the Lord turned water into wine, a thing which hath some qualities in common with blood and shall we deem Him less worthy that we should believe Him, when He turneth wine into Blood When He was bidden to that marriage wherein twain were made one flesh, He did the beginning of His miracles to the amazement of all men; and shall we less surely hold that He hath given us His Body and Blood to be our meat and drink, or take them with weaker faith that they are indeed His Body and His Blood Under the appearance of bread He giveth unto us His Body, and, under the appearance of wine, His Blood and when thou shalt come to receive, it is on the Body and Blood of Christ that thou wilt feed, being made a partaker of His Body and of His Blood. Thus indeed it is that we become Christbearers, namely, by carrying about Christ in our bodies, when we receive His Body and Blood into our own frames. Thus, as the blessed Peter hath it, we are “partakers of the Divine nature.” (2 Pet. i. 4.)

[Lectio6]
Christ once said, in conversing with the Jews “Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you.” (John vi. 53.) But they took not spiritually that which He said, and “from that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” (66.) They thought that He had bidden them to eat flesh. The Old Testament also had Shewbread, but this Old Testament bread was now to have an end. The bread of the New Testament is “the Bread Which cometh down from heaven” (50), the cup of the New Testament, the Cup of Salvation, that Bread and that Cup Which hallow both souls and bodies. Wherefore I will have thee to understand that the Bread and Wine whereunto thou art to come, are not mere common bread or mere common wine for they are the Body and the Blood of Christ. Even if thy senses do indeed deny this fact, yet let faith make thee right sure of it. Judge not the Thing by the taste thereof, but let faith assure thee beyond all doubt thou art partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to John
!John 6:56-59
At that time Jesus said unto the multitudes of the Jews My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. And so on.
_
Homily by St. Cyril, Pope of Alexandria.
!Book iv. on John, ch. 17
“He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood,” saith the Lord, “dwelleth in Me, and I in him.” If a man take two pieces of wax and melt them, and pour the one into the other, they necessarily mingle so also, he that receiveth the Body and Blood of the Lord doth become so joined with the Lord that he is to be found in Christ and Christ in him. Another comparison thou wilt find in Matthew. The Lord there saith “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, [till the whole was leavened,]” (xiii. 33,) because, as Paul saith, “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” (Gal. v. 9.) So also doth a little of this Blessing draw the whole man unto Itself, and fill him with Its grace and thus doth Christ dwell in us, and we in Christ.

[Lectio8]
As for ourselves, if we would win life everlasting; if we would that the Giver of immortality should dwell in us, let us run freely to receive this Blessing, and let us beware that the devil succeed not in laying a stumbling-block in our way, in the shape of a mistaken reverence. Thou rightly sayest, and we know well, how that it is written “Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.” ( Cor. xi. 27, 29.) I therefore examine myself and find myself unworthy. And I ask thee, who citest these words to me, who shall ever be found worthy When wilt thou be such an one as may be worthy to be offered to Christ If by sin thou art unworthy, and thou ceasest not to sin, (for, as the Psalmist hath it, “Who can understand his errors?” (Ps. xviii. 13) then shalt thou for ever lack this means of life and sanctification.

[Lectio9]
Therefore, I counsel thee to betake thee to godly thoughts, and to live carefully and holily, and so to receive that Blessing a Blessing which, believe me, doth banish, not death only, but all diseases likewise. For when Christ dwelleth in us, He stilleth the law of death in our members, which warreth against the law of our mind, (Rom. vii. 23,) He giveth strength to godliness, He turneth to calm the turbulent surging of our mind, He cureth them which are sick, He raiseth up them which are fallen, and, like the Good Shepherd, Which giveth His life for the sheep, He prevaileth that the sheep perish not.
&teDeum