The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 118: Partake of God

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

How does transubstantiation happen, and what do we receive when we receive the Eucharist? Fr. Mark-Mary shares some catechesis on the Eucharist, drawing from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who is sometimes  referred to as the doctor of catechesis. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Institution of the Eucharist and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

Hey, I'm Father Mark Murray with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and to Mary and comes to source grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 118. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit AscensionPress.com, forward slash rosaryinayear or text R-I-Y to 33-777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to preach month and it's great way to track

your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast in the Ascension app, there are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary with myself and other friars. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. Today we will be meditating upon praying with the fifth woman's mystery, the institution of the most holy Eucharist with help

from a writing by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem and his work, Catechetical Lecture 22, on the mysteries on the body and blood of Christ. So our author today is our second Saint Cyril. We had Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Today we have Saint Cyril of Jerusalem. He was born in the year 313, died in 386. St. Cyril became the bishop of Jerusalem, which is obviously an important place to be

bishop, and that happened in the year 348. And really, as we've touched on quite a bit with authors of this time, the first couple hundreds of years, they were all kind of involved with a variety of disputes for Orthodox faiths. And by Orthodox faith, I mean, right faith, understanding the truth of who Jesus is. And a lot of their work was sort of arguing for Orthodox faith against a variety of heresies. One of the prominent heresies around Saint Cyril would have been Arianism, which claimed that Jesus was a creature and not God. And to be honest, he was actually under suspicion quite a bit of having Arian leadings,

but these were proven false. He would take part in the second ecumenical council, the Council of Constantinople in 381. Saint Cyril is a doctor of the church, and I've seen him referred to as the doctor of catechesis. Okay, and the point of emphasis for our meditation is going to be, this is my body, and this is my blood. Okay, now our reading from Saint Cyril of Jerusalem. For you have just heard him say distinctly that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, take, eat, this is my body.

And having taken the cup and given thanks, he said, take, drink, this is my blood. Since then he himself declared instead of the bread, this is my body. Who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since he has himself affirmed and said, this is my blood, who shall ever hesitate saying that it is not his blood? He once in Cana of Galilee turned the water into wine akin to blood. And is it incredible that he should have turned wine into blood?

When called to a bodily marriage, he miraculously wrought that wonderful work. And on the children of the bride chamber shall he not much rather be acknowledged to have bestowed the fruition of his body and blood. Wherefore, with full assurance, let us partake as of the body and blood. Wherefore, with full assurance, let us partake as of the body and blood of Christ. For in the figure of bread is given to you His body, and in the figure of wine His blood, that you by partaking of the body and blood of Christ

may be made of the same body and the same blood of Him. For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because His body and blood are distributed through our members. Thus it is that according to the Blessed Peter, we become partakers of the divine nature." The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. Again, the point of reference is going to be Jesus saying, this is my body and this is

my blood. Today's episode is going to be a little bit more, maybe catechetical than devotional, a little bit more of a teaching as opposed to just a reflection and an encouragement to prayer. And I'm going to key on to kind of components, two themes from the reading. The first, I think it's super important to just note that the time period. Right again, as we mentioned, St. Cyril of Alexandria is a church father in the sort of the early to mid fourth century.

This is a long time ago and relatively early to the life of Christ. And what I want to highlight here is already here at the time of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, there's an understanding that Jesus at the Last Supper, He's not speaking symbolically, but what we could say like sacramentally. A sacrament being a sign which affects what it signifies, so what it represents, it actually makes happen. And so let's just sit with these words again from Saint Cyril. This is my body, who shall dare to doubt any longer?

And since he has himself affirmed and said, this is my blood, who shall ever hesitate saying that it is not his blood? Belief in the true presence that the bread and wine through the celebration of mass by a properly ordained priest and what we call transubstantiation, like he becomes truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. And I I think it's important to just remember that this is an ancient belief, and this is the long-standing belief. The idea of it just being a symbol is really a novelty, which again, in John chapter 6, is why so many people left him, because they understood he wasn't just speaking symbolically.

And the second point of catechesis is this, and this is going to be like a little bit of what we can call sacramental theology. I'm gonna introduce two terms to you that we use when speaking of the sacraments. And they're Latin phrases, the first being ex operae operato, which means from the work worked.

The second is ex operi operantes, which translates by the work of the doer. One is going to be referring to the objective reality, objectively what happens. The second is going to be referring to, if you will, the subjective efficacy, the subjective fruitfulness of the sacrament, right? So a child who is validly baptized,

like there's a work that just work, the ex operi operato. He or she, like it's cleansed from original sin, becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, a sharer in the life of Jesus, they become part of the church, and the most holy Trinity comes to dwell in their souls. This happens by a valid baptism. Whether or not this grace of the baptism is going to continue to bear fruit in their lives, whether or not they're going to become saints, it's going to be dependent a lot on what we use

the same language of ex operandi, so like their response to the grace. Similarly with marriage, a couple who is validly married, there becomes the subjective reality of the marriage bond. But whether or not this marriage is going to sanctify them, it's going to depend on their response. This ex operae operantes,

so this objective fruitfulness of the sacrament is going to be dependent on their cooperation with the grace. What I keyed in on with St. Cyril of Alexandria is really kind of falls under the umbrella of ex operae operato. Through the valid celebration of the mass, like transubstantiation happens, and we come up and we who receive Holy Communion,

like objectively speaking, we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. Whether or not we believe doesn't actually affect it. The sanctity, the holiness of the priest doesn't actually affect it. Like if a priest, a validly ordained priest, validly celebrates Holy Mass, objectively speaking, the bread and the wine experienced transubstantiation

become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. That is just what happens. However, the fruitfulness of this sacrament is going to be dependent on our response. It's going to be dependent on our cooperation with the grace. As Saint Cyril, he says this, this is what is intended to happen through our pious and devout reception of most holy communion.

For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because his body and blood are distributed through our members. Thus it is that according to the Blessed Peter, we become partakers of the divine nature. That which has had a substantial change, the essence of it has changed through the most holy mass. It's intended to actually transform us and change us as well, to make us partakers of the divine nature. And what a gift it is that we get to receive God,

that we get to receive Jesus, the fullness and the source of truth and goodness and strength, our hope, our life, right? The bread of life, the living waters. Objectively speaking, we receive God. So essentially, like, God gives himself to us. And in giving himself to us, he gives us everything. Objectively speaking, he gives himself totally to us as we come and receive Most Holy Communion.

But whether or not that is going to be a reality which transforms our life, which fills us with hope and strength and courage, in part, it's going to be dependent on our response, on how we live our lives. And if we can use an image of Jesus, like Jesus talks about how the kingdom of God, it's like

these seeds that are sown. And there's a variety of different soils. And on some soils, it just doesn't bear any fruit. On some, it bears a little bit of fruit. On some, it bears fruit for a time. But on the good soil, it comes to bear fruit, you know, 60, 90, 100-fold. We want to be the good soil. Jesus gives himself totally to us in such a beautiful gift in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist. And we want to live lives. We want to live lives which make ourselves good soil.

How do we do that? Certainly by keeping out sin. How do we do that? By an ongoing daily prayer life. How do we do that? Through steeping ourselves in the Word of God. How do we do this? Through charity, steeping ourselves in the Word of God. How do we do this? Through charity, especially through the corporal and the spiritual works of mercy. And I guess the reminder is this, like the bread and wine, yeah, absolutely, truly become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. But whether or not this is something that makes us partakers of the divine nature, whether or not this becomes like the real, real fruitful food for the journey, whether or not this becomes the source of our strength, it is going to be in part dependent

on how we live our lives, of our cooperation with grace. And so today, as we pray, we want to first just give praise to Jesus for the gift of the most Holy Eucharist, for the gift of himself that he gives to us, but also to ask for the grace of that deepening and ongoing conversion, for weeding out in our lives anything which is making us not good soil, and also asking for the grace of that deeper conversion, a deeper prayerfulness, a deeper holiness, so that as we receive this most precious of gifts, it may truly transform us and change us. And now with Mary, let us pray. In the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Alright, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco Poco, friends. God bless you all.