The bread of angels
By Tom Quiner
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a11YheB2zM]
God IS love.
This is how the Catholic Church views God. I think many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have the same view.
In other words, love isn’t just a character trait of God, he’s not just a “loving” entity, rather He is the embodiment of love.
God IS love.
Eucharist is the heart and soul of the Catholic Mass. At Mass this morning, I heard the beautiful words of St. Thomas Aquinas sung before I took communion.
Latin Text
Panis Angelicus fit panis hominum
Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum
O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
English Translation
The angel’s bread becomes the bread of men
The heavenly bread ends all symbols
Oh, miraculous thing! The body of the Lord will nourish
The poor, poor, and humble servant
The poor, poor, and humble servant
Here is a different translation.
The angelic bread
becomes the bread of men;
The heavenly bread
ends all prefigurations:
What wonder!
The Lord is eaten
by a poor and humble servant.
God pours out His love into our bodies when we consume this angelic bread. Thank-you, Jesus!
Then, to hear such a lovely hymn only heightens the experience. Many composers have set St. Thomas’ lyrics to music. Perhaps none is more beloved than Cesar Franck’s beautiful setting as sung by Renee Fleming, which I’ve posted above.
This poor and humble servant has been nourished today by the bread of angels, which is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
I have tasted Love.
You should always write.
Thank you for placing us all there with you at the Communion rail. Know that we take you and Karen with us as well.
( if not so eloquently as you have done).
Deus caritas est.
Thank-you. It was a real pleasure breaking bread with you and Rene last night. Peace.
Great Post !!!
When referencing Christians who know GOD IS LOVE don’t leave out the “Second Largest Group of Christians in the World” though.
Communion after Litergy at my OCA Orthodox Church this morning was pretty awesome too.
Absolutely! Greetings to my Orthodox Church readers, whom I hold in high regard.
A God who could make good children as easily a bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave is angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell — mouths mercy, and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules and foregiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!
— Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger